In this article, the subject of analysis from the positions of political science is the institution of citizens’ addresses to government bodies, which presents a unique phenomenon belonging at one and the same time to the sphere of state (public) power and to the sphere of non-political (civil) society. It is due to the described peculiar nature of theirs that citizens’ addresses are able to serve as a significant connecting link between «political» and «civil» reality, which is especially important under the conditions of the weakening influence of electoral mechanisms. Development of the institution in question may become a significant element of the search for the Russian way to public policy.