Judicial power and challenges of modernization in post-reform Russia

The monograph by A.N. Vereshchagin devoted to the Cassation Senate of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries is analyzed. The thoroughness and historiographical relevance of this work are emphasized. The publicistic nature of the text, which is unnecessary for research of this kind, is noted. Disagreement is expressed with the author’s opinion regarding the time of the end of the unlimited nature of the Russian autocracy, but at the same time the validity of the historian’s conclusions on the significance of the reform of the Russian judicial system for its modernization is emphasized.