G.R. Derzhavin - first Russian minister of justice and general public prosecutor

The article deals with a biography and public destiny,social and literary life of Russian poet and citizen G.R. Derzhavin on the background of the historical transformations in Russia in the XVIII - beginning of XIXth centuries. Considers the influence of the poetry of Russian classicism on the formation of Russian statehood, on the establishment of the Russian legal system, the new legislature in the course of the reform of the legislative and Executive authority during the reign of Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I. Russian literature becomes one of the important means of asserting society of new ideas - ideas of citizenship, but citizenship based on respect for the individual the principle of «common good». G.R. Derzhavin, in the spirit of European literary-political mentality of the Enlightenment, namely the word, and not merely the fact, tried to fix the existing system, and kings, and public morality