The unity of the Russian state in the political and legal views of Fyodor I. Tyutchev

The article considers the problem of the unity of the Russian Empire in the political and legal views of F.I. Tyutchev. Category of unity has been the key for the thinker, not only applied to state but also to the whole Russian society. F.I. Tyutchev allocates properties of legality and illegality of empires not in a legal, but in a moral sense. The legitimacy of the Russian Empire and, consequently, its right to the territory is justified by continuity from the Byzantine Empire and commitment to Orthodoxy. It is concluded that the thinker creatively reworked the theory of official nationality, selecting Orthodoxy in the triad of «Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality» as the key element.