ABSTRACT
In contemporary Russia, we are witnessing the latest historical cycle of existence of the mechanism of complaints addressed to the authorities. In the history of Russian society, the complaint mechanism has declined and recovered again at least six times. In the Russian tradition, it has always existed as a tool to support authoritarianism and the paternalistic patriarchal contract, in its various forms, between the authorities and society. Mechanism of complaints has always accepted a wide range of arguments which extend far beyond the formal legal norms. In Russia, a complaint to the authorities has always been associated with informality, challenging certainty, accuracy, and rationality that are necessary for successful modernization of the Western type. From a monarchical, personalized form of interaction, provided by the Tsarist complaint bureaucracy, the Soviet mechanism moved on to interaction of citizens with institutions. The existence of the Soviet mechanism was functionally justified.
