The institution of the district police guard in Siberia in the early 20th century

This article, based on pre-revolutionary legislation and archival materials, examines the process of establishing a rural guard in the Trans-Ural part of the Russian Empire, identifies the specific features of its activities, and provides an analysis of these features. The growing interest in the history of the Siberian police is connected not only to historians' desire for a deeper understanding of the past but also to purely practical needs. The study aims to investigate the specific features of the establishment and operation of the rural police guard in the early 20th century. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the research is the fundamental principles of historical inquiry -objectivity, historicism, the social approach, and alternativity - which presuppose an unbiased analysis of the problems under investigation, as well as a critical approach to the sources. The historical trends in the development of the rural police guard are identified in relation to the general processes of the development of Russian statehood. The author concludes that with the creation of the district police guard, the rural police authorities in the region acquired the necessary reserve units and an organizational structure identical to that of the district-level bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the central provinces of the country. However, the formation of the rural police guard in Siberia did not yield the expected results and failed to improve the crime situation. This was because the guard units were created to suppress agrarian unrest, and their activities were intended to quell mass peasant uprisings, which did not occur, as the acute agrarian question had never been a pressing issue in the region. The system of regional administration in Siberia had already become largely ineffective, as it was not initially designed to respond promptly to emerging problems. Unable to withstand the strain, it collapsed under the pressures of war and the subsequent revolutionary events of February 1917. The institution of the district guard proved unnecessary in the Trans-Ural part of Russia; it was unable to cope with either speculation, mass desertion, or the rising banditry. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

Keywords

Authors

References