The Ancient Oriental Problematics of the Scientifi c Heritage of Professor O.A. Zhidkov

The article directed to research of the oriental direction in the scientific activity of the famous historian jurist Zhidkov Oleg Andreevich. We analyzed his author’s provisions from textbooks and scientific publications from the middle of the last century, in which he developed a non-trivial outline for comparative oriental studies, as an integral part of the historical school of the RUDN University. Among the important achievements of the professor Zhidkov, there is a bibliographic analysis of the authority works of Western orientalists and Russian oriental jurists, his specific approach to political genesis and the emergence of ancient law, and his polemics with Western orientalists on the varna/class division of the Ancient Eastern population. Zhidkov’s research is also aimed at the identification of a hydrotechnical type of economy (‘landwater commune’), and comparative historical description of the Eastern law and legal institutions. The field of discussion remains the systematicity of law and legal codification in the Ancient East, which his colleagues and followers of his teachings are developing in our days in the scientific heritage of O.A. Zhidkov.