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Police Reform in the Russian Province of Iaroslavl, 1856-1876

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Robert J. Abbott
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Extract

In the two decades that followed the Crimean War the local police, always crucial elements of the tsarist system, assumed a new importance. Vested with special responsibility for maintaining law and order and occupying a key position in the bureaucratic hierarchy, they were cast in a major role in carrying out the Great Reforms of Alexander II. The task of fitting the police to assume this role was one of great concern to Russia's leaders and occupied their attention throughout the reign. This essay is a study of police reform in the area of Iaroslavl Province. It examines the background, nature, and success of government efforts to revitalize an essential branch of the Russian state system.

On the eve of the period of reforms the local police in Iaroslavl as in other Russian provinces were officials of enormous influence. They were the foundation stones of a giant bureaucratic pyramid, for in addition to their special superior—the Ministry of Internal Affairs—a host of ministries, councils, and other government agencies depended on them. Matters of finance and justice, the supervision of industry and commerce, the protection of life and property—all were the concern of the police.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 1973 , pp. 292 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1973

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References

1. The choice of Iaroslavl Province was prompted by the availability of a considerable amount of material relating to its police during the period under study. An examination of more limited material from other provinces has convinced me that the situation of the Iaroslavl police was in no way unusual or exceptional.

2. Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv SSSR (TsGIA SSSR), fond 1281, Sovet Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del, opis' 6, delo 52, “Po otchetu o sostoianii Iaroslavskoi gubernii za 1856 g.,” p. 52.

3. Vasilii, Lukin, Pamiatnaia kniga politseiskikh zakonov dlia zemskoi politsii (St. Petersburg, 1857).Google Scholar

4. Materialy sobrannye dlia vysochaishoi uchrezhdennoi kommissii o preobrasovanii gubernskikh i uezdnykh uchreshdenii : Otdel politseiskii (St. Petersburg, 1870-76), part 1, sec. 2, 1870, appendix, pp. 46-47, 118-21 (hereafter MSVUK : OP).

5. The figure of 29, 000 inhabitants is drawn from the governor's 1857 report. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 55, p. 98.

6. The local landlords, of course, provided some assistance to the police. For a discussion of the landlords’ police power see Jerome, Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, 1961; reprint ed., New York, 1964), p. 429.Google Scholar

7. See, for example, TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 52, 1856, p. 52; d. 55, 1857, p. 56.

8. Ibid., op. 6, d. 55, p. 56.

9. This was the finding of Prince Vasilchikov in an 1858 report. Evgenii, Anuchin, Istoricheskii obzor razvitiia administrativno-politseiskikh uchreshdenii v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1872), p. 78.Google Scholar

10. Vtoroe polnoe zobranie zakonov rossiiskoi imperii (St. Petersburg, 1830-84), vol. 28, no. 27, 372; vol. 31, no. 30, 098, art 9 (hereafter II PSZ).

11. For a description of the rural police by a most perceptive observer see August Haxthausen-Abbenburg, Franz von, The Russian Empire : Its People, Institutions, and Resources, trans, by Faire, Robert, 2 vols. (London, 1968), 2 : 211–12.Google Scholar

12. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 22, pp. 44-45; d. 41, p. 32.

13. MSVUK.-OP, part 1, sec. 2, p. 218.

14. Ibid., p. 325.

15. See the 1857 report of Governor Buturlin. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 55, p. 56.

16. Haxthausen, Russian Empire, 2 : 212.

17. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 55, p. 69.

18. For illustrations of this problem of police weakness see L. B. Genkin, “Krest'ianskoe dvizhenie v Iaroslavskoi gubernii na rubezhe 1850-1860 kh godov,” in Akademiia nauk SSSR, Institut istorii, Revoliutsionnaia situatsiia v Rossii v 1859-1861 gg. (Moscow, 1962), pp. 135, 149.

19. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 41, “Po otchetu o sostoianii Iaroslavskoi gub. za 1861 g.,” p. 21.

20. Three separate pieces of legislation were enacted to create the new officials, define their duties, and explain their relationship to the police.II PSZ, vol. 35, nos. 35, 890, 35, 891, 35, 892. For a closer look at the new officials see Brazol, B. L., “Sledstvennaia chast',” Sudebnye ustavy 20 noiabria 1864 g. za piatdesiat' let, 3 vols. (St. Petersburg. 1914), 2 : 65–114.Google Scholar

21. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 41, p. 35.

22. Ibid., d. 27, pp. 64-65.

23. Ibid., p. 49.

24. Ibid., op. 7, d. 32, p. 23; Sudebnye ustavy, 2 : 1.

25. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 7, d. 37, p. 44.

26. Other factors, such as a decrease in population, might also have contributed to a decline in the volume of police business. In the four areas in question, however, the population remained stable during the period under study, and no other complicating factors seem to have been present.

27. This estimate (the approximate total of categories 1, 4, and 6) may be an overly generous one. The responsibilities from category 4 included in the total were related more to the prosecution of criminals than to the prevention and suppression of crime.

28. As the figures in table 3 should make clear, the situation of the commissioner differed considerably from that of the district officer. This difference was accounted for by the greater number of judicial responsibilities (category 4) imposed on the superior officer. This in turn was accounted for by the physical proximity of the commissioner to the local court.

29. V. G. Chernukha, “Krest'ianskii vopros v pravitel'stvennoi politike Rossii (60-70 gody XIX veka),” (Avtoreferat dissertatsii, Leningrad, 1961), pp. 7-8.

30. MSVUK-.OP, part 3, sec. 4, 1876, p. 314.

31. Ibid., p. 408.

32. For figures on serf population see Genkin, “Krest'ianskoe dvizhenie v Iaroslavskoi gubernii,” p. 128.

33. II PSZ, vol. 37, no. 39, 087.

34. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 27, p. 56.

35. Ibid., op. 7, d. 38, p. 48.

36. Ibid., p. 46.

37. II PSZ, vol. 35, no. 35, 890, art. 5.

38. Ibid., vol. 37, no. 39, 087.

39. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 6, d. 27, p. 58.

40. Otechestvennyia zapiski, 25 (January 1863) : 39.

41. TsGIA SSSR, f. 1281, op. 7, d. 27, p. 34.

42. Ibid., d. 59, p. 46.

43. MSVUK:OP, part 3, sec. 4, p. 408.