This monograph, written in the genre of philosophical and political science journalism, analyses legal nihilism as a systemic phenomenon. The author considers legal nihilism as a set of two interrelated and interdependent phenomena: 1) denial by the state of the law as its self-restraint and 2) rejection by the people of the legal norms imposed on them. Some aspects of legal understanding are analysed and an attempt is made to examine legal nihilism in a cultural and historical context, for which purpose examples from the Russian history of state and law are drawn. This work is intended for all those interested in the problems of philosophy of law and social philosophy.