The monograph is devoted to the views of theorists of legal populism of the 70-90s of the XIX century on the Russian democratic intelligentsia and its role in the public life of post-reform Russia. Particular attention is paid to the problem of self-determination of the populist intelligentsia through the idea of ​ ​ serving the people and its influence on the interpretation by the populist reformists of the social nature of the advanced Russian intelligentsia, the peculiarities of its thinking and social position.