The famous lawyer Anatoly Fedorovich Koni is known for his works in various fields of humanitarian knowledge. At the same time, his historical, cultural and ethnographic research is completely unknown. In our work, we reveal this important aspect of the work of the outstanding prosecutor and senator of the Russian Empire. Historical works Anatoly Fedorovich wrote under the influence of his father, who was known as a biographer of Frederick the Great. In addition, in the 1860s, he was strongly influenced by Russian historians from St. Petersburg and Moscow universities. Under the influence of these persons, Konya gradually developed his own style, which included subjectivity, emotionality, the identification of ethical aspects and a tendency to biography. Despite repeated attempts to begin writing history, the lack of time did not allow the lawyer to constantly study history. Another object of interest was urban culture, which was strongly interested in Koni. Noticing many cultural features of Russian cities, he kept notes, collected materials, but also did not create much work in this area. His essays on Russian ethnography were popular and descriptive. Despite the fact that many of Koni's efforts in history, cultural studies and ethnography did not end with major works and not one of his studies was published, the study of his works allows us to better understand the worldview of a major lawyer of the empire, as well as to determine the degree of understanding of the situation of people from his environment.