Tsarist Okhrana is the everyday name of the structural bodies of the police department of the Ministry of the Interior, operating on the territory of the Russian Empire. Full name - Department for the protection of public security and order. The structure was engaged in private investigation, in the system of public administration at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century it played an important role. It was founded in 1866 and dissolved in March 1917. In this article, we will tell about the history of this unit, its agents and provocateurs.
History of Creation
The Tsarist Okhrana was created under the St. Petersburg mayor in 1866. The formal reason was the assassination attempt on Alexander II, organized by the terrorist and revolutionary Dmitry Karakozov. He fired at the emperor near the gates of the Summer Garden, but missed. He was immediately arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. A few months later he was hanged on Smolenskaya Square.
Initially, the tsarist secret police was located on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, later it was transferred to Gorokhovaya. The security department was part of the structure of the police department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, directly reporting to the capital's mayor. It included an extensive office, a spy detachment, a security team, a registration office.
Appearance of the Second and Third Divisions
The second security department was established in Moscow in 1880. The corresponding order was signed by Interior Minister Mikhail Loris-Melikov.
In some cases, the Moscow division of the tsarist secret police went out of search activity outside the province, performing the functions of an all-Russian center of political investigation. The direct executor was a special flying detachment of filers, created in 1894. It was headed by Yevstraty Mednikov, who is considered the founder of the national school of surveillance agents. The head of the security unit Sergei Vasilievich Zubatov was listed as the immediate supervisor. The flying detachment was abolished in 1902, it was replaced by permanent search points created under the gendarmerie provincial administrations.
The third security department since 1900 operated on the territory of Warsaw. Two years later, in connection with the growth of the revolutionary mood in society, similar divisions were opened in Yekaterinoslav, Vilna, Kyiv, Kazan, Saratov, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis. They were engaged in political investigation in the provinces, conducted surveillance, and developed a network of secret agents.
Investigation case
In 1902In 2009, the activities of the branches began to be regulated by new documents. The Tsarist Okhrana concentrates its work on the search business. Police and gendarmerie authorities, having information that may be useful in its activities, must report them for subsequent development, arrests and searches.
The number of security departments is increasing literally every year. By the end of 1907, there were already 27 of them. In some areas, the branches of the tsarist secret police began to be liquidated after the suppression of the 1905 revolution. If there is a lull in the opposition movement in the province, it is considered that it is not advisable to maintain a security unit in it.
Since 1913, the widespread liquidation of security departments began on the initiative of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Dzhunkovsky. By the beginning of the February Revolution, they were preserved only in Moscow, Petrograd and Warsaw.
District security departments
The security departments reported directly to the police department under the Ministry of the Interior. It was here that the general direction of the search activity was given, the issues of disposing of personnel were resolved.
In December 1906, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pyotr Stolypin creates regional security departments. They are charged with the duty to unite all the institutions of political investigation that functioned in that area.
Initially there were eight, but due to the growth of the revolutionary movement in Turkestan and Siberia in 1907, two more appeared.
Abolition
HistoryThe tsarist secret police ended in March 1917, almost immediately after the February Revolution. It was liquidated by decision of the Provisional Government. At the same time, part of the archive was destroyed back in February.
The total number of agents of the tsarist secret police was about one thousand people. At the same time, at least two hundred of them worked in St. Petersburg. In most provinces, two or three employees of the security department were in the service.
At the same time, in addition to the official staff, there were special agents. The tsarist secret police had so-called snitches who conducted surveillance, as well as informants who were sent to political parties.
Special agents
Special agents played an important role. Their work, invisible at first glance, made it possible to create an effective system for the prevention of opposition movements and surveillance.
Before the First World War, there were about one thousand snitches and about 70.5 thousand informers. In both capitals, from fifty to one hundred surveillance agents were sent to work every day.
To become an agent of the tsarist secret police, one had to pass a tough selection. The candidate was tested for sobriety, honesty, dexterity, courage, ingenuity, patience, endurance, caution and perseverance. Mostly young people of inconspicuous appearance no older than 30 years old were taken to this service. They were real bloodhounds of the royal secret police.
The informers accepted janitors, porters, passport officers, clerks. They were required to report any suspicious person to the district warden, toto which they were attached. Unlike fillers, informers were not considered full-time employees, so they were not en titled to a permanent salary. They were paid for useful information from one to fifteen rubles.
Perlustrators
Special people were engaged in reading private correspondence. This was called perusal. This tradition has existed since the time of Benckendorff, agents became more active after the assassination of Alexander II.
The so-called black offices existed in all major cities of the country. At the same time, the conspiracy was so thorough that the employees themselves did not know about the existence of such units in other places.
Network of Domestic Agents
The efficiency of work was increased due to an extensive network of internal agents. Employees were infiltrated into various organizations and parties that controlled their activities.
There was even a special instruction for recruiting secret agents. It advised giving preference to those who had previously been involved in political affairs, as well as offended or disillusioned with the party, weak-willed revolutionaries. They were paid between five and 500 rubles a month, depending on the benefits they brought and their status. Their career advancement in the party was strongly encouraged. Sometimes this was even helped by the arrest of higher-ranking party members.
At the same time, the police were wary of those who volunteered to be engaged in the protection of public order, since many random people fell into this category.
Provocateurs
The activities of the agents who were recruited by the secret police were not limited to the transfer of useful information to the police and espionage. Often they were tasked with instigating actions for which members of an illegal organization could be arrested. For example, agents reported in detail about the time and place of the rally, after which the police had no difficulty in detaining the suspects.
It is known that the creator of the CIA, Allen Dulles, paid tribute to Russian provocateurs, noting that they raised this craft to the level of art. Dulles emphasized that this was one of the main ways in which the Okhrana got on the trail of dissidents and revolutionaries. The sophistication of Russian provocateurs delighted an American intelligence officer, who compared them to characters in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novels.
Azef and Malinovsky
The most famous provocateur in history is Yevno Azef. He simultaneously led the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and was a secret police agent. Not without reason, he was considered directly involved in organizing the assassination of the Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. At the same time, at the behest of Azef, many well-known members of the Socialist-Revolutionary militant organization were arrested, he was the highest paid agent of the empire, receiving about one thousand rubles a month.
Roman Malinovsky, one of the Bolsheviks who had close contact with Vladimir Lenin, was also a successful provocateur. He periodically assisted the police by reporting secret meetings and secret meetings.members of the same party, the location of underground printing houses. Until the very last moment, Lenin refused to believe in the betrayal of his comrade, he valued him so much.
As a result, with the assistance of the authorities, Malinovsky even achieved election to the State Duma, and from the Bolshevik faction.
Details about him and other agents who left their mark on history are described in Vladimir Zhukhrai's study "Secrets of the tsarist secret police: adventurers and provocateurs". The book was first published in 1991. It describes in detail the intrigues and behind-the-scenes struggle in the highest ranks of the gendarmerie, the ruling circles of Tsarist Russia, the secret police and the police. The author of "Secrets of the Tsarist Okhrana" takes memoirs and archival documents as a basis, making an attempt to penetrate the history of domestic political investigation.
Loud Murder
One of the most disastrous cases in the history of the security forces of Tsarist Russia is the assassination of Prime Minister Stolypin in 1911. The official was shot dead by anarchist Dmitry Bogrov, who was also a secret informant for the Okhrana. He shot Stolypin twice point-blank at the opera house in Kyiv.
During the investigation, the head of the security department in Kyiv Nikolai Kulyabko and the head of the palace guard Alexander Spiridovich were among the suspects. But on behalf of Nicholas II, the investigation was suddenly terminated.
Many researchers believe that both Spiridovich and Kulyabko were themselves involved in the murder of Stolypin. For example,Zhukhrai claims in his book that they were not only aware that Bogrov was planning to shoot Stolypin, but also contributed to this in every possible way. That is why they believed in his legend about an unknown SR who was going to kill the Prime Minister, they allowed him to enter the theater with a weapon to expose the imaginary terrorist.
Confrontation with the Bolsheviks
After the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks were the main threat to the autocracy. Close attention was riveted to them from agents of various levels. Nikolai Starikov writes about this in detail in his book "The History of the Bolsheviks in the Documents of the Tsarist Okhrana".
Among the huge number of parties in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, it was the Bolshevik that stood out for its purposefulness and integrity.
In his study, the author describes in detail how the tsarist secret police and the revolutionaries interacted. As it turns out, there were many traitors, provocateurs and double agents among the Bolsheviks. Information about this has been preserved in numerous documents. The book contains surveillance reports, party pseudonyms, opened letters.
Operations abroad
Since 1883, the Okhrana acted abroad. In Paris, a unit was created to monitor emigrants with revolutionary views. Among them were Peter Lavrov, Maria Polonskaya, Lev Tikhomirov, Peter Kropotkin. It is interesting that the number of agents included not only Russians, but also local Frenchmen who were civilians.
Before 1902Peter Rachkovsky was the head of the foreign secret police. These years are considered the heyday of her activities. It was then that the Narodnaya Volya printing house in Switzerland was destroyed. However, then Rachkovsky himself fell out of favor, who was suspected of collaborating with the French government.
When Minister of the Interior Plehve became aware of the dubious connections of the head of the foreign secret police, he immediately sent General Silvestrov to Paris to check the validity of this information. Soon Silvestrov was found dead, and the agent who denounced Rachkovsky was also found dead. He was removed from service. He managed to continue his career in 1905 in the police department under the leadership of Trepov.
