The article presents two poles of modern legal culture in Russia: legal idealism and legal nihilism. The principle of polarity of value principles in culture is discussed in the prism of F. Nietzsche's views. The antinomy of cultural vectors is manifested in a particular type of national culture – in legal culture, in the form of legal nihilism and legal idealism. Both trends imply value series that reflect real attitudes of civil identity and require attention when formulating national ideology. In the context of the concept of the collective unconscious by C.G. Jung, as well as interpretations by R. Frager and D. Feidiman, collective, legal models of behavior are also part of the unconscious, generating value cultural attitudes, in the context of the presented article, we are talking about legal nihilism and legal idealism. Legal nihilism is a passive, negative attitude towards the law as an instrument for the implementation of civil will, which negatively affects the quality of social life. In the modern history of Russia, the vector of legal nihilism became widespread during the period of social crisis of the late 80s and early 90s. Legal idealism also gives rise to a crisis of faith in legislative bodies of power, since it presupposes ideals that are far from reality. In the prism of the ideas of N.Ya. Danilevsky, K.N. Leontiev, L.N. Gumilev, it is necessary to interpret legal consciousness as a developing system. This perspective of understanding civil life allows us to conclude about the necessity of the existence of vectors of legal idealism and nihilism in a harmonious combination, since this is how dialectical mechanisms of movement into the future are formed.