From “Conditions” to Constitution: Comparative analysis of political projects in the Russian Empire of the 18th century

Abstract

The paper examines politically significant projects such as “Conditions”, which were created by members of the Supreme Privy Council for Anna of Russia, and constitutional projects of Count N. I. Panin. The author analyzes the main provisions of these political projects, how they influenced state management, and why they were not implemented. The academic novelty of the paper lies in the comparison of these projects according to specific criteria: aims and motives for their creation, representative body, regime, monarch role, supporters, results and impact. The comparison of these projects is defined by controversial nature of the N. I. Panin constitutional project sources. The central question of the matter is whether N. I. Panin took the ideas for his project only from West-European sources (Swedish or English constitutional acts) or chose a comprehensive approach and considered Russian political experience and constitutional projects. The author concludes that these documents were the most important political projects created in the second quarter and the second half of the 18th century based on archived and published scientific research.