The outstanding Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellen (1864 — 1922) is known first of all as the man who invented the term “geopolitics”. His scientific heritage, however, is not confined to geopolitical research. Geopolitical ideas were just a by-product of his broader scientific researches aimed at finding out the subject-matter field of political science as such. It is this range of problems that is treated in his works “Politics and Science” and “State as a Form of Life”, with fragments of which we acquaint our readers. Edition used for the translation: Kjellen R. Staten som lifsform. Stockholm, 1916.