THE CIVIL SOCIETY CONCEPT IN THE RUSSIAN LIBERAL THOUGHT IN THE EARLY XX CENTURY (BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE A. L. SHANYAVSKY UNIVERSITY’s EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME)
Background. The article is devoted to the previously unexplored in the national historiography phenomenon regarding the place and role of the A. L. Shanyavsky National University in formation of civil society in the Russian public life in the early twentieth century. The applied actuality of the study consists in a possibility of application of the domestic historical experience to assess and improve the development of civil society basic institutions in our country. The purpose of this article is to examine and analyse the Shanyavsky University’s academic programmes in the context of presence of such a direction of liberal political activities of the early twentieth century as the creation of civil society ideology bearers in the politically active part of Russian society. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on the basis of academic subjects’ materials, taught in the framework of the social-philosophical cycle of the A. L. Shanyavsky University, as well as on the basis of archival funds’ materials, and verbatim records of the State Duma. The methodology of work, in addition to traditional scientific research methods, was based on the comparative-historical method, which helps to correlate the educational programmes’ content with respect to their compliance with basic elements of civil society; the statistical method was used to analyse the information about the civil society institutions in the curriculum. Results. The analysis of the A. L. Shanyavsky University educational programmes revealed a high degree of civil society institutions’ representation in a large number of educational disciplines of the social-philosophical cycle. The analysis also determined the role of certain disciplines in development of students’ holistic view of civil society as an important component of the ideology and the political life of society. Conclusions. Members of law societies made a significant contribution to the development of local court reformation. The jurists managed not only to reason the necessity to consider the judicial reform issue in the Parliament, but also to develop main proposals for transformation of the local court. However, not all fundamental issues of the local court reform, proposed by members of law societies, were implemented in the adopted law that was due to the position of executive authority and the balance of political forces in the State Duma.