Features of the Siberian Police Bureaucracy in the Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries

Based on pre-revolutionary laws, the article comprehensively considers the process of formation of the Siberian police bureaucracy. The growing interest in the history of local government is connected not only with the aspiration of historians to look more deeply into the past but also with practical needs. Research of the forgotten traditions of public administration allows taking greater account of historical experience that has been accumulated over the centuries. We also need to take a look at the already known facts and events in the light of today's realities. This approach may help overcome the old myths and misconceptions and also prevent the birth of new ones. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research was such principles of historical knowledge as objectivity, historicism, alternativeness, and a social approach, which assume an unbiased view in the analysis of the researched problems, as well as a critical attitude to sources. State administration in the late 19th - early 20th centuries was not separated from police activities; administrative and police authorities in the region were de facto merged. The author concludes that the powers of the administrative and police authorities in the region had their own features and were much wider than in the central provinces of the Russian Empire. Moreover, the absence of the zemstvo and zemstvo's self-government exempted police officers from control by zemstvo's corporate organization. Another feature of the region was its peripheral status and role of a hard labor area. A characteristic feature of the Siberian administration was its militarized organization. Siberian administrators had weak theoretical training, and often they did not even have any systematic education. This lowered the professional level of the employees of the Siberian administrative police bodies. However, the system of transfers in the service allowed people who had repeatedly practised all the elements and methods of administrative and police activities to hold key positions. The vast territory, the underdeveloped communications, the weak intensity of socioeconomic and political ties generated uncontrolled autonomy in the actions of local police bodies that did not adequately have an appropriate legal basis. The remoteness and huge size of Siberia generated unprecedented arbitrariness from the local police bureaucracy. The history of the Siberian local management in the late 19th - early 20th centuries is an almost continuous series of abuses of power.

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