Use of regular troops as a police force in Russia in the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centures

The article deals with a topical and insufficiently explored problem of using regular troops against the revolutionary actionof the masses during the tsarist autocracy in Russia. The author reviews the reasons for the authorities legal use of military forces against thecivilians within the country. A few facts are listed to show the use of regular troops as official police forces in some towns of Siberia and ofthe Far East. According to the Russian law in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century regular troops couldbe resorted to in case of riots. The article reveals how soldiers, policemen and the civil authorities were to interact during the suppression ofthe revolutionary action of the masses. The author names the ways and methods employed by the government and the Army Command whotried to remain loyal to Tsar Nicholas II. There are facts testifying to the creation of specialized punitive detachments which were obliged toconduct active military operations against the revolutionary movement in Siberia and in the Far East during the revolution of 1905 - 1907.The article depicts different attitudes of the Army Command and of the regional police to the use of soldiers for escorting criminals, banishedto Siberia. The reasons for weak loyalty of soldiers in military units of Siberia to the tsarist autocracy in Russia are also outlined by the author.He describes the reaction of the general public in Russia to the use of regular troops against civilians, as well as the outcome of theboycott set up by the revolutionary parties of Russia against the soldiers who participated in punitive detachments and expeditions in variousregions of the country.

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