the article analyzes the views of academician Yu.K. Tolstoy on the legal relations and show what value they have for the development of legal science in Russia. Developed by Yu.K. Tolstoy theory, separating the public relations and the legal relations, allows us to understand the role of the latter in the mechanism of legal regulation. The legal relations becomes the perfect model of the real relations of people, the content of which is partly determined by legal provisions and partly of the will of the parties-the legal relations. This can be seen in the similarity between the theory of Yu.K. Tolstoy and the doctrine about law of H. Kelsen. Unfortunately, because of ideological taboos, that existed in Soviet times, Yu.K. Tolstoy did not express directly the idea that law regulates not themselves public relations and legal relations. His ideas, of course, survived the abandonment of the Marxist-Leninist ideology in the law and continue to remain relevant to this day.