Galina A. Kutina

The article highlights the most important milestones in the life and creative path of the largest legal historian, Oleg Ivanovich Chistyakov, from the Great Patriotic War to the end of his life. His contribution to the development of historical and legal science is noted, as the initiator, editor of the entire publication, as well as the author of the 9‑volume “Russian Legislation of the X–XX centuries”, for the publication of which in 1996, already in modern Russia, he, as the head of work, together with some members of the author’s team, was awarded the State Prize for the first time among legal historians the prize of the Russian Federation and awarded the title of “Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation”. 

O. I. Chistyakov was the first president of the Russian Historical and Legal Society, established in 2000. He is the developer of the problems of the form of state unity, the author of the allocation of the state with autonomous entities as a special form, attributing Russia not to the federation, but specifically to this form of the state. The issues raised by the author in his works are not outdated and are relevant. O. I. Chistyakov’s scientific works, as well as educational literature prepared by him or a team of authors under his editorship, are still being published and are in demand.