The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century)

Nadezhda Nizhnik; Ekaterina Kozinnikova

UDC

340.15

CSCSTI

10.07

VAK Russia

5.1.1

THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE: CONDITIONS FOR THE EXERCISE OF CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE CONTEXT OF ENSURING THE STABILITY OF THE STATE SYSTEM (AS ASSESSED BY RUSSIAN SCHOLARS OF POLICE LAW IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY) The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century)

АА Аа

Published in Vestnik of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia · Pages 29–45 · Rubric: Theoretical and historical legal sciences

Received: 02.03.2026 Accepted: 25.06.2026 Published: 30.06.2026 Language of publication: RUS

Authors

Nadezhda Nizhnik

ORCID Scopus SPIN

Ekaterina Kozinnikova

ORCID

Nadezhda Nizhnik

Academic degree: doctor of jurisprudence sciences

Science rang: professor

Saint Petersburg University of the MIA of Russia Professor of Department · Russian Federation · Saint-Petersburg

ORCID Scopus SPIN

Ekaterina Kozinnikova

Academic degree: candidate of jurisprudence sciences

Saint Petersburg University of the MIA of Russia Russian Federation · Saint-Petersburg

ORCID

ABSTRACT

Introduction. The freedom of peaceful assembly is one of the fundamental political rights, without the effective exercise of which the full development of democratic institutions and civil society is impossible. Guarantees for the right to assemble peacefully and without weapons to express opinions and discuss socially significant issues are indicators of the level of democracy in a state. Emerging in the Early Modern period, the issue of human rights has developed into an independent topic in theoretical and comparative-historical jurisprudence. Police science – the policelegal theory associated with the formation and development of the discipline of police law – has contributed to the understanding of human rights, as reflected in the works of thinkers from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Russian police science was at its peak. The critical examination by police-law scholars included issues such as maintaining public order, ensuring state security, and the realisation of human rights. Despite mentions in the works of contemporary scholars of the fact that police-legal theory paid attention to the issue of human rights, the perspectives of police-law scholars on civil liberties, particularly those formed during the revolutionary transformations of Russia's state-legal system in the early 20th century, remain inadequately studied, understood, and evaluated to this day. Among the gaps in historical-legal analysis is the right to assemble: the views of domestic police-law scholars on public assemblies in the early 20th century have not been adequately covered in scholarly literature. Methods. The foundation of the research is dialectics as a methodology for the scientific understanding of phenomena in reality, considering their development and self-motion; methodological principles of the unity of theory and practice, objectivity, comprehensiveness, and thorough study of social processes and phenomena, and the unity of the historical and logical, which allow for the analysis of the theoretical legacy of domestic police-law scholars of the early 20th century; general scientific methods (historical, functional, theoretical modelling, hypothesis construction) and special methods (formal-legal, historical-legal, comparative-legal) of legal research. The method of interpretation held particular significance, enabling a problem-theoretical reconstruction of the views of police-law scholars from the early 20th century. Results. To achieve the research goal of identifying the perspectives of Russian police-law scholars in the early 20th century on civil liberties – the right to assemble – and assessing the conditions for the exercise of this right in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system, various types of sources were employed. Based on their study, the normative foundation for the right to assemble in Russia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries was established. Relying on the works of police-law scholars from the early 20th century, whose research addressed the issues of the right to assemble in the Russian Empire (notably I. E. Andreyevsky, N. Kh. Bunge, V. M. Gessen, V. F. Deryuzhinsky, A. I. Elistratov, V. V. Ivanovsky, I. T. Tarasov, among others), conclusions were drawn that within the framework of policelegal theory, issues regarding the characteristics of assemblies and associations, the limits of the exercise of freedom in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, and the grounds for limiting the right to assemble were examined. Potential threats to the internal security of the state related to unions and assemblies were identified. Policelaw scholars justified the necessity of state control over the organisation and conduct of assemblies; the obligation of the state to ensure public order during public events was defined; and the role of the police in safeguarding the right of citizens of the Russian Empire to assemble in the early 20th century was outlined.

KEYWORDS

police science, police-legal theory, right to assemble, public assemblies, spontaneous assemblies, peaceful assemblies, union, association, unlawful gathering, security police

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GOST

Nizhnik N. S., Kozinnikova E. N. The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century) // . 2026. pp. 29-45. (Date of access 19.08.2026).

MLA

Nadezhda Nizhnik, Kozinnikova E. N.. "The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century)." (2026): 29-45.

APA

Nizhnik N. S., Kozinnikova E. N. (2026). The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century). , 29-45.

Chicago

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{{cite journal | author = Nizhnik N. S., Kozinnikova E. N. | title = The right to assemble: conditions for the exercise of civil liberties in the context of ensuring the stability of the state system (as assessed by Russian scholars of police law in the early 20th century) | journal = | year = 2026 | pages = 29-45 }}

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