Glimpses of history of Russian legal science of XIX c. N.M. Korkunov: hours of triumph in legal science and tragedy in private life

The article observes creative career of N.M. Korkunov, an outstanding Russian legal theorist of the second half of XIXth century. He considered scientific explanation of process of replacement of one social structure by another as the main aim of legal science. «What thing and how should be changed and what thing can still exist? What is the best algorithm to replace the old structure by the new one? What forms of legal protection will come to being in the new society?» - that questions he was focused on. As a part of criticizing the authocratic government in Russia he proved the necessity to reform it and by so doing to provide human rights as far as possible. N.M. Korkunov based a theory about relative independence of a person in social processes, which was highly estimated by contemporaries.