On the question of L.A. Tikhomirov's views on the state through the prism of participation in populist political organizations (1870s – mid 1880s)

The purpose of the article is to analyze L. Tikhomirov's views on state, primarily through the prism of the category of "supreme power", represented by an anti-people autocratic monarchy, subject to revolutionary destruction and the establishment of a people's government in its place. A system of principles and methods, both general scientific and special, is used. In the context of a personalized approach, relying primarily on the method of comparing different views on the problem, we define his position as a statesman and opponent of anarchism.

As a result of the study, a specific understanding of the supreme power was found, reflecting not class, but general social interests, and the people as a whole in relation to the marked power and land. From this, L. Tikhomirov drew the conclusion about a rapid transition to socialist democracy, bypassing the intermediate stage. Such views on state are a call for discussion.

Conclusion. Along with a negative assessment of the functioning model of the state, he generally criticized the theory and practice of bourgeois constitutionalism. Although after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II there was a short period when he put forward general democratic demands – a freely elected Constituent Assembly, political freedoms, amnesty. However, the ideal was a revolutionary socialist state, replacing absolutism. Among the factors of the rapid fall of the autocracy, he called his lack of support in society (the thesis is similar to the ideas of P. Tkachev that the autocracy hangs in the air). The concept of the state is presented to them in general terms. Power passed to the Constituent Assembly democratically elected by all sections of the population, socialist in composition. It had legislative and executive power. The deputies worked on the basis of an imperative mandate. In communal self-government, the principle of direct popular legislation dominated. The slogan of the republic was not proclaimed directly. The task was to build a nationwide unitary state.

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