Аннотация:This paper examines Russia's accession to the (Western) European legal tradition in the mid-19th century. It reviews the key elements of traditional Russian legal culture of the 1820s and 1830s and examins Professor Dmitry Meyer's (1819–1856) contribution to the establishment of Westernized Russian science of civil law, reforming legal education, and formation of professional legal consciousness. To illustrate this process this study analyses Meyer's treatment of sale and purchase contracts.