The present study explores the genesis of the first Russian translation of On Crimes and Punishments, made by Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov. In the first part the author on the grounds of textual arguments states that Shcherbatov translated Beccaria’s work from the Italian edition of 1774 (i.e. from the so called «Masi edition»), and that he used also two secondary sources, Catherine’s Instruction (1767) and the Elizabethan Bible of 1751. In the second part special attention is given to Prince Shcherbatov, a representative and at the same time original exponent of the Russian Enlightenment.
