ABSTRACT- The research contains the analysis of the existential traits of contemporary Russian constitutionalism as a complicated societal and cultural phenomenon providing for a fundamentals of the legal environment of constitutional governance in Russia. Author highlights a number of specific features and factors which have a significant impact on the figure of contemporary Russian constitutionalism as well he also underlines that the most severe obstacles in the way to legal modernization of Russia are the global challenges, the distortion of the mass legal consciousness, and the excessive bureaucracy within the public authority’s institutions. The research provides for the analysis of different views and approaches formulated by contemporary legal academic writers and Russian thinkers of the past in the context of the peculiarities of Russian constitutionalism.
KEYWORDS- constitutionalism, global challenges, legal nihilism, legal consciousness, political and legal culture, civil society, democracy.