Before you is one of the greatest works of the ancient Greek thinker Plato, written in 360 BC. e., which has not lost its extreme relevance to this day. The essay is structured on the principle of conversations devoted to the problems of organizing an ideal state. The dialogue also contains a taxonomy and brief critical analysis of six forms of state, placed by the author sequentially - from best to worst: monarchy, aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. The publication is equipped with a detailed preface and detailed commentary on each part of the conversations, which were written by the translator works by the Russian philosopher V.N. Karpov. The book adapts pre-revolutionary spelling and punctuation, in accordance with the current rules of the Russian language, but preserving the stylistic and linguistic features of the translation by Professor Vasily Nikolaevich Karpov.