The author investigates the role the notion of law played in the Decembrists' ideology. The semantics of the notion is examined in the first part of the article while the second part of the article deals with defining of the notion’s place in the Decembrists' Weltanschauung: notions that are semantically connected with the notion of law are identified and a system of basic Weltanschauung notions of secret societies' members is reconstructed. Ideology of the Decembrists is examined in the third part of the article on the basis of the system obtained. In particular, emergence of monarchy limitation and serfdom abolition ideas is considered.

The article is devoted to study of social and political views common to members of the Russian officers corpus. Officers' attitude toward the Emperor and peasants is investigated on the basis of the Fatherland and the Fatherland’s son notions semantics analysis. Change of these views in the post-war period (1814−1825) is traced. It is demonstrated that under the impact of wars waged in 1812−1814 this postulate transformed: the Emperor quitted to be associated with a son of the Fatherland while, on the contrary, officers started to perceive peasants as sons of the Fatherland. It is this transformation where origins of the Decembrist ideology are discovered.