150 years of Russian military-legal science: from the past to the present

Introduction. Russian military legal science is a unique field of legal thought, covering issues of legal regulation of the armed forces, disciplinary, administrative and criminal liability of military personnel, as well as methodological principles of training military lawyers. The origins of science date back to the middle of the 19th century, when, during the reforms of Alexander II, it became necessary to systematize military legal knowledge and train legal officers.

Purpose. Identification of systemic patterns and stages of formation, transformation and continuity of military-legal knowledge, scientific schools and literary tradition in the context of cardinal historical and political changes in Russia.

The methodological basis of the research includes historical-legal, comparative-legal and system analysis, which allowed for a retrospective comparison of key scientific paradigms and approaches.

Results and conclusions. The article provides a comprehensive historical and legal analysis of the century-and-a-half-long development of Russian military legal science from the moment of its institutionalization in 1867 up to modern trends in 2025. The work identifies three main stages of the development of science: the classical academic (the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries), the Soviet ideological and pragmatic (1920s-1980s) and the modern stage of interdisciplinary synthesis (the turn of the 20th–21st centuries – present). For each stage, the dominant scientific schools, their methodological attitudes and key representatives. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the influence of the Alexander Military Law Academy as a catalyst for the autonomy of this scientific discipline, as well as the dialectical transformation of its methodological basis during the transition from imperial to Soviet and post-Soviet models of statehood. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematic reconstruction of the evolution of scientific schools and the demonstration of a stable methodological continuity of principles such as consistency, historicism and practical orientation, despite the change of political regimes. In conclusion, the key vectors of further development of military legal science related to globalization, digitalization and deepening interdisciplinary ties are substantiated.

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