From the history of the Security Departments of the Police Department of the Russian Empire. District security departments

The security department appeared in Russia in the 1860s, when a wave of political terror swept the country. Gradually, the tsarist secret police turned into a secret organization, whose employees, in addition to fighting the revolutionaries, solved their own private tasks.

Special agency

One of the most important roles in the tsarist secret police was played by the so-called special agents, whose inconspicuous work allowed the police to create an effective system of surveillance and prevention of opposition movements. These included filers - "surveillance agents" and informers - "auxiliary agents".

On the eve of the First World War, there were 70,500 informers and about 1,000 fillers. It is known that from 50 to 100 surveillance agents were deployed daily in both capitals.

There was a rather strict selection in place of the filler. The candidate had to be "honest, sober, courageous, dexterous, developed, quick-witted, hardy, patient, persevering, cautious." They usually took young people no older than 30 years old with an inconspicuous appearance.

The informers were hired for the most part from among the porters, janitors, clerks, and passport officers. Auxiliary agents were required to report all suspicious individuals to the district warden who worked with them.
Unlike fillers, informers were not full-time employees, and therefore did not receive a permanent salary. Usually, for information that, when checked, turned out to be “substantial and useful,” they were given a reward from 1 to 15 rubles. Sometimes they were paid with things. So, Major General Alexander Spiridovich recalled how he bought new galoshes for one of the informants. “And then he failed his comrades, failed with some kind of frenzy. This is what the galoshes did,” the officer wrote.

Perlustrators

There were people in the detective police who did a rather unseemly job - reading personal correspondence, called perusal. Baron Alexander Benckendorff introduced this tradition even before the creation of the security department, calling it "a very useful thing." The reading of personal correspondence became especially active after the assassination of Alexander II.

"Black cabinets", created under Catherine II, worked in many cities of Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis. The conspiracy was such that the employees of these offices did not know about the existence of offices in other cities.
Some of the "black cabinets" had their own specifics. According to the Russkoye Slovo newspaper of April 1917, if in St. Petersburg they specialized in reading letters from dignitaries, then in Kyiv they studied the correspondence of prominent emigrants - Gorky, Plekhanov, Savinkov.

According to data for 1913, 372,000 letters were opened and 35,000 extracts were made. Such labor productivity is astonishing, considering that the staff of illustrators was only 50 people, who were joined by 30 postal workers.
It was quite a long and laborious work. Sometimes letters had to be deciphered, copied, exposed to acids or alkalis in order to reveal the hidden text. And only then suspicious letters were forwarded to the search authorities.

Yours among strangers

For more effective work of the security department, the Police Department has created an extensive network of "internal agents" that infiltrate various parties and organizations and exercise control over their activities. According to the instructions for recruiting secret agents, preference was given to "suspected or already involved in political affairs, weak-willed revolutionaries who were disillusioned or offended by the party."
Payments for secret agents ranged from 5 to 500 rubles per month, depending on the status and benefits. The Okhrana encouraged their agents to move up the party ladder and even helped them in this matter by arresting higher-ranking party members.

With great caution, the police treated those who voluntarily expressed a desire to serve as the protection of state order, since there were many random people among them. As a circular from the Police Department shows, during 1912 the Okhrana refused the services of 70 people "as untrustworthy." For example, the exiled settler Feldman recruited by the secret police, when asked about the reason for giving false information, answered that he was without any means of subsistence and went on perjury for the sake of reward.

provocateurs

The activities of the recruited agents were not limited to espionage and the transfer of information to the police, they often provoked actions for which members of an illegal organization could be arrested. The agents reported the place and time of the action, and it was no longer difficult for the trained police to detain the suspects. According to the creator of the CIA, Allen Dulles, it was the Russians who raised provocation to the level of art. According to him, "this was the main means by which the tsarist secret police attacked the trail of revolutionaries and dissidents." The sophistication of Russian agents provocateurs Dulles compared with the characters of Dostoevsky.

The main Russian provocateur is called Yevno Azef - both a police agent and the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. It is not without reason that he is considered the organizer of the murders of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Minister of the Interior Plehve. Azef was the highest paid secret agent in the empire, receiving 1,000 rubles. per month.

A very successful provocateur was Lenin's "comrade-in-arms" Roman Malinovsky. The Okhrana agent regularly helped the police to locate underground printing houses, reported on secret meetings and conspiratorial meetings, but Lenin still did not want to believe in the betrayal of his comrade. In the end, with the assistance of the police, Malinovsky achieved his election to the State Duma, moreover, as a member of the Bolshevik faction.

Strange inactivity

The activities of the secret police were connected with events that left an ambiguous judgment about themselves. One of them was the assassination of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. On September 1, 1911, at the Kiev Opera House, an anarchist and a secret informer of the Okhrana, Dmitry Bogrov, without any interference, mortally wounded Stolypin with two shots point-blank. Moreover, at that moment, neither Nicholas II nor members of the royal family were nearby, who, according to the plan of events, were supposed to be with the minister.
On the fact of the murder, the head of the Palace Guard Alexander Spiridovich and the head of the Kyiv security department Nikolai Kulyabko were involved in the investigation. However, on behalf of Nicholas II, the investigation was unexpectedly terminated.
Some researchers, in particular Vladimir Zhukhrai, believe that Spiridovich and Kulyabko were directly involved in the murder of Stolypin. Many facts point to this. First of all, the suspiciously easily experienced Okhrana officers believed in Bogrov's legend about a certain Social Revolutionary who was going to kill Stolypin, and moreover, they allowed him to get into the theater building with a weapon in order to allegedly expose the alleged killer.

Zhukhrai claims that Spiridovich and Kulyabko not only knew that Bogrov was going to shoot Stolypin, but also contributed to this in every possible way. Stolypin, apparently, guessed that a conspiracy was brewing against him. Shortly before the murder, he dropped the following phrase: "They will kill me and the members of the guard will kill me."

Okhrana abroad

In 1883, a foreign secret police was created in Paris to monitor Russian emigre revolutionaries. And there was someone to follow: these were the leaders of the People's Will, Lev Tikhomirov and Marina Polonskaya, and the publicist Pyotr Lavrov, and the anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin. It is interesting that the agents included not only visitors from Russia, but also French civilians.

From 1884 to 1902, the foreign secret police was headed by Pyotr Rachkovsky - these were the heydays of its activity. In particular, under Rachkovsky, agents defeated a large Narodnaya Volya printing house in Switzerland. But Rachkovsky was also involved in suspicious connections - he was accused of collaborating with the French government.

When the director of the Police Department, Plehve, received a report about Rachkovsky's dubious contacts, he immediately sent General Silvestrov to Paris to check on the activities of the head of the foreign secret police. Silvestrov was killed, and soon the agent who reported on Rachkovsky was also found dead.

Moreover, Rachkovsky was suspected of involvement in the murder of Plehve himself. Despite compromising materials, high patrons from the environment of Nicholas II were able to ensure the immunity of the secret agent.

Ch. "grassroots" organization. element (subdivision) watered. investigation of tsarist Russia in the system of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (late XIX - early XX centuries). The first two O.o. established in St. Petersburg - "Department for the preservation of order and tranquility in the capital (1866) and in Moscow - "Secret Investigation Department at the Office of the Moscow Chief Police Chief" (1880). In 1900, the third OO was created. in Warsaw. Since 1902, a network of departments has been organized (at first they were called "search departments") in large cities and cities with the largest revolutionary movement: Kazan, Kyiv, Saratov, Tiflis, and others (by 1907 there were already 27 of them, and by 1914 - 60). Norms, rationale for the organization and activities of O.o. given in a number of legal acts: Regulations "On the organization of the secret police in the Empire" (1882), Regulations on the beginning. search, departments (1902), Temporary regulation on security departments (1904), Regulations on security departments (1907). O.o. were in dual subordination: according to the results of the operational investigation, they reported to the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in terms of organization (combat, inspection and economic areas) - to the Separate Corps of Gendarmes. See Provincial Gendarmerie Directorate (GZhU), Detective activities, District security department,. Volkov A. Petrograd security department. - Pg., 1917; Osorgin M.A. Security department and its secrets. - M., 1917; Zhilinsky V.B. Organization and life of the security department in the days of tsarist power. - Pg., 1918; Members S.B. Moscow Okhrana and its secret employees. - M., 1919; Spiridovich A.I. under the tsarist regime. Notes of the head of the security department. - M., 1926; Shindzhikashvili D.I. Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tsarist Russia in the period of imperialism. - Omsk, 1974; Zhukhrai V.M. Secrets of the tsarist secret police: Adventurers and provocateurs. - M., 1991; ; ; Reent Yu.A. General and political police of Russia (1900-1917). - Ryazan, 2001; ; Osipov A.V. History of the Nizhny Novgorod security department. - N. Novgorod, 2003.-T. one.

May 12th, 2015

Special agency

On the eve of the First World War, there were 70,500 informers and about 1,000 fillers. It is known that from 50 to 100 surveillance agents were deployed daily in both capitals.

Unlike fillers, informers were not full-time employees, and therefore did not receive a permanent salary. Usually, for information that, when checked, turned out to be “substantial and useful,” they were given a reward from 1 to 15 rubles.

Sometimes they were paid with things. So, Major General Alexander Spiridovich recalled how he bought new galoshes for one of the informants. “And then he failed his comrades, failed with some kind of frenzy. That's what the galoshes did," the officer wrote.

Perlustrators

Some of the "black cabinets" had their own specifics. According to the Russkoye Slovo newspaper of April 1917, if in St. Petersburg they specialized in reading letters from dignitaries, then in Kyiv they studied the correspondence of prominent emigrants - Gorky, Plekhanov, Savinkov.

It was quite a long and laborious work. Sometimes letters had to be deciphered, copied, exposed to acids or alkalis in order to reveal the hidden text. And only then suspicious letters were forwarded to the search authorities.

Yours among strangers

According to the instructions for recruiting secret agents, preference was given to "suspected or already involved in political affairs, weak-willed revolutionaries who were disillusioned or offended by the party."

Payments for secret agents ranged from 5 to 500 rubles per month, depending on the status and benefits. The Okhrana encouraged their agents to move up the party ladder and even helped them in this matter by arresting higher-ranking party members.

The Okhrana, (until 1903 it was called the "Department for the Protection of Public Security and Order"), a local body of political investigation in pre-revolutionary Russia, subordinate to the Police Department. The main task of the security departments was to search for revolutionary organizations and individual revolutionaries. The security departments had extensive special agents of both "surveillance" - snitches, and secret agents (passive informers and active participants in the activities of revolutionary organizations - provocateurs).

For example, the exiled settler Feldman recruited by the secret police, when asked about the reason for giving false information, answered that he was without any means of subsistence and went on perjury for the sake of reward.

provocateurs

According to the creator of the CIA, Allen Dulles, it was the Russians who raised provocation to the level of art. According to him, "this was the main means by which the tsarist secret police attacked the trail of revolutionaries and dissidents." The sophistication of Russian agents provocateurs Dulles compared with the characters of Dostoevsky.

Evno Fishelevich Azef is a Russian revolutionary provocateur, one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and, at the same time, a Secret Officer of the Police Department.

In the end, with the assistance of the police, Malinovsky achieved his election to the State Duma, moreover, as a member of the Bolshevik faction.

Strange inactivity

The activities of the secret police were connected with events that left an ambiguous judgment about themselves. One of them was the assassination of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin.

On September 1, 1911, at the Kiev Opera House, an anarchist and a secret informer of the Okhrana, Dmitry Bogrov, without any interference, mortally wounded Stolypin with two shots point-blank. Moreover, at that moment, neither Nicholas II nor members of the royal family were nearby, who, according to the plan of events, were supposed to be with the minister.

On the fact of the murder, the head of the Palace Guard Alexander Spiridovich and the head of the Kyiv security department Nikolai Kulyabko were involved in the investigation. However, on behalf of Nicholas II, the investigation was unexpectedly terminated.

Some researchers, in particular Vladimir Zhukhrai, believe that Spiridovich and Kulyabko were directly involved in the murder of Stolypin. Many facts point to this. First of all, the suspiciously easily experienced Okhrana officers believed in Bogrov's legend about a certain Social Revolutionary who was going to kill Stolypin, and moreover, they allowed him to get into the theater building with a weapon in order to allegedly expose the alleged killer.

The case of the murderer of Stolypin - a secret agent of the Kyiv security department Dmitry Bogrov.

Okhrana abroad

From 1884 to 1902, Pyotr Rachkovsky headed the foreign secret police - these were the heydays of its activity. In particular, under Rachkovsky, agents defeated a large Narodnaya Volya printing house in Switzerland. But Rachkovsky was also involved in suspicious connections - he was accused of collaborating with the French government.

Pyotr Ivanovich Rachkovsky - Russian police administrator, head of foreign intelligence, organizer of political investigation in Russia.

The main role in the formation of security departments in the Russian Empire belongs to the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleva and the head of the Moscow security department, Colonel S.V. Zubatov. It was according to the project of the head of the Moscow Security Department that the structure of the gendarmerie was organized on the ground, the main task of which was reduced to undercover and operational search work. Since 1826, the gendarmerie departments in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw have been engaged in such activities.

Benckendorff’s employees also carried out operations abroad, but in the provinces the gendarmerie performed the functions inherent in the division of the current Russian Guard. Many officers in the provinces simply did not understand the political situation in the empire, the situation urgently needed to be corrected. This reform was 20 years late, the first Marxist circles appeared in Nizhny Novgorod as early as the mid-80s of the 19th century, and in the 90s Lenin visited them more than once.

The management staff of the NGZhU, consisting of 37 people located in Nizhny Novgorod, could not physically monitor the political processes taking place in the entire Nizhny Novgorod province, and in fact the population at the beginning of the 20th century was already 1.6 million people. Only two scribes served in the office of the NGJU, the document flow at the gendarmerie department was quite large, it is doubtful that two people would be able to process such an array of documents in time with all the consequences, especially for operational work.

The number of employees of the NGJU was not increased, even during the growth of revolutionary activity in the early twentieth century. As a result, by the beginning of the economic crisis of 1900, out of 11 districts of the province, 9 were outside the supervision of NGZhU.

A special temporary department for the protection of order and security in Nizhny Novgorod appeared in November 1894 and lasted until November 1, 1896. The reason for the appearance in our city of the gendarme department was the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1896 and the arrival of Nicholas II in Nizhny Novgorod timed to coincide with its holding. This gendarme institution has proven itself very well. Here, for example, is how Nizhny Novgorod revolutionary A.I. Piskunov recalled the great pogrom in 1896. Thanks to numerous arrests and deportations, the social-democratic work that had been carried out until now was fundamentally undermined, and a proper organization could not be established. We had to put in a lot of work to make connections with the workers until we found the threads through which we established a connection with the Kurbatov plant, and by the spring of 1900 we had a circle of youth from this plant. Subsequently, he was the main core of the organization with. - d. in the city.

In view of the difficult political situation with socialist circles in Nizhny Novgorod, on October 2, 1902, a search department was formed, and since 1903, the Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Law and Order of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. This reform was 20 years late - the first Marxist circles appeared in Nizhny Novgorod back in the mid-80s of the 19th century, and in the 90s Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) visited them more than once.

The structure of the department consisted of the office, the department of external surveillance and the undercover department of internal surveillance. At the head was the head of the department, captain Zasypkin, in the office there was a clerk and three scribes, and M. I. Rozhdestvensky, who had previously served as a police overseer in the Moscow Security Department, was appointed the first clerk. During business trips, thanks to his experience, he replaced the head of the department, and in 1903 he was appointed head of surveillance. At the beginning of work, the department had 18 lower ranks, several night watchmen and policemen to guard the building. Secret office work was conducted alphabetically on cards of different colors. For example, blue cards were for social democrats, red for socialist-revolutionaries, green for anarchists, yellow for students, and gray for soldiers. White cards were issued to the Cadets and all other citizens who showed interest in politics, that is, almost the entire intelligentsia in the city was "under the hood".

The Surveillance Department had 11 fillers on staff, from 1908 15, recruited from former non-commissioned officers, the gradation went from junior filler, filler to senior filler. On August 10, 1907, Comrade Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Makarov sent a letter No. 132539 to the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod with a request to enroll surveillance agents of the LEO as police guards in order to increase their meager allowance. On December 17 and 18, 1907, the governor's office enrolled only three fillers as guards. In 1908, the position of head of external surveillance appeared, before that, the senior filer Semenov was considered the secret head in the department, and from 1903 to 1908 Rozhdestvensky, the senior filer Mochalov with a salary of 100 rubles became the official head. And on July 25, 1909, a peasant woman from the village of Yuryevsky district, Vladimir province, Matryona Antonovna Semenova, was accepted as a filer, with a salary of 30 rubles a month. But already on December 1, 1909, the filer of the hem of the resignation letter, the work is both hard and still dangerous.

It was forbidden to use fillers for injection, as they were quickly exposed. This was facilitated by the receipt by the fillers of the same civilian clothes, purchased with state money. The monthly salary of these employees was 25-40 rubles. A nickname was chosen for the object of observation - for example, Yakov Sverdlov was given the nickname "Kid", and Genrikh Yagoda - "Owl". From June 7, 1904, fillers could be called in as witnesses, but this practice led more to the falsification of facts.

The undercover department of internal surveillance consisted of the head of the department, his assistant, and the secret agents themselves. The head of the department himself was engaged in recruiting agents and working with them. For meetings with agents, there were two secret apartments, hotel rooms were rented. The most valuable agent during the revolutionary events of 1905 was a woman under the pseudonym "Preobrazhenskaya", her name could not be figured out until today. In April 1912, due to a shortage of personnel, the clerk Rozhdestvensky and the head of surveillance Mochalov were allowed to work with agents. If the agent failed, a fatal outcome could be expected. So, in 1903, agents Pyatnitsky were killed by members of the RSDLP, and in 1906 agent Tatarov was liquidated by militants of the Social Revolutionary Party.

In addition to political agents, auxiliary agents were also recruited. This agency consisted of tavern owners and their regulars, volost and rural clerks, and servants of persons under surveillance. Agents - "tricks" or "confessors" - were special agents who demanded remuneration for each information obtained. But they were more annoying than helpful. So, for example, in 1912, in the security department in the city itself, there were 8 secret agents, 4 auxiliary, and 1 "confessor". The salary of an agent was 20 rubles, valuable agents were paid 50-100 rubles. According to Captain Greshner, the first head of the department, Zasypkin, was predatory towards agents, involving agents as witnesses in trials. The Nizhny Novgorod gendarme department was engaged in recruiting agents in the province, but, due to not the warmest relations with the security department, in 1906, with the sanction of Colonel Levitsky, a repentant revolutionary who appeared in the gendarmerie department, a resident of the city, was recruited, and captain Tereshchenkov demanded that the Police Department transfer the agent to the security department. department. By the way, at the reception of the department from the acting captain of the murdered Greshner, captain Zaglukhinsky, only one secret agent was transferred to captain Tereshchenko. This caused a strong suspicion among the new chief of the waste of agents by Zaglukhinsky during the month of his duties as head of the department.

The Nizhny Novgorod gendarmerie was also engaged in perusal of postal correspondence. The perusal point itself appeared in Nizhny Novgorod as early as 1894. By the way, for these actions, according to the law, the permission of the district court was required, but there was not enough time for such trifles, and breaking the law became commonplace. Two auxiliary agents were recruited at the post office, who did a titanic job for only 10-15 rubles a month. The results turned out to be very effective, the gendarmerie revealed deeply hidden revolutionaries, often on the wanted list, revolutionary and party "appearances" were opened. For example, the revolutionaries coded Ulyanov as "Ilyin", Krupskaya as "Katya". The pseudonyms for the organizations were also unpretentious - the Mensheviks were called "Mish", and the Bolsheviks were "Boris". The passports of many revolutionaries were called "boots". In 1902, the Iskra newspaper was found in a letter that came from abroad, and in 1903 the identified recipients of the newspaper, the owners of the underground printing house and distributors were arrested.

The gendarmerie also had to deal with checking anonymous letters, but, as always, most of them only distracted from work. A lot of information was obtained during interrogations, but it was not possible to find facts of beatings of the defendants, scuffle remained the prerogative of the police. By the way, it was precisely because of the talkativeness of the police officers involved in joint events that information was leaked. But, due to strained relations with the provincial gendarme department, the security department often had to involve police officers in all kinds of operations.

The main task for the newly arrived head of the department, Captain Greshner, was to search for secret agents. Since he undertook this work competently, the result was the discovery and closure of two printing houses by December 1904 and the arrest of active revolutionaries. The information of Moscow colleagues also helped. The village of Sormovo, where 15,000 workers lived, caused particular tension. The workers gathered gatherings of several hundred people in forested areas, posting armed guards around the perimeter. From 1903 to 1904 alone, in Sormovo, police officers came under fire seven times from militant workers, and during searches, pistols and revolvers were more and more often confiscated from workers. But, thanks to arrests among agitators from among the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia, strikes from August 1904 had only economic demands. Leaflets were now printed only on a hectograph, which also reduced the campaign work.

Sormoff's plan in 1905

The first Russian revolution in Nizhny Novgorod began on January 14, 1905 with a strike by workers at the Molitov factory. By the end of January - beginning of February, strikes swept not only the workers of most factories in the province, but also employees, city clerks and employees of pharmacies, employees of printing houses were on strike. Initially, the demands were of an economic nature, the gendarmerie carried out active arrests among agitators who called for the overthrow of the autocracy, army units were brought into Sormovo. In March, the strikes began to subside, but on April 28, Captain Greshner was killed by order of the committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Right at the entrance to the security department, while pursuing a terrorist, guard Kuritsyn was mortally wounded. The killer was caught up and detained, he turned out to be a nobleman of the Penza province Nikiforov. On August 12, 1905, by a court verdict, the terrorist was hanged. Interestingly, connections from Nikiforov led to the Moscow dairy millionaire Chichkin. During a search of the millionaire, they found revolutionary literature, compromising correspondence and two revolvers. True, the moneybags were quickly released from custody under solid guarantees.

For about a month, the duties of the head of the department were performed by captain Zaglukhinsky, captain Treshchenkov took over from him. At this time, a difficult situation developed in the village of Sormovo, up to a thousand workers gathered daily and listened to the speeches of speakers who directly called for the overthrow of the autocracy. Most of all, Captain Treshchenkov was outraged by the position of the governor, since he did not take any serious measures to disperse anti-government gatherings. In early July, the Nizhny Novgorod Committee of the RSDLP held a meeting with the Socialist Revolutionaries and local Mensheviks. The general decision was to strike on July 9 with political demands. With the joint efforts of the Cossacks and the police, groups of demonstrators were dispersed in different parts of the city. On July 10, the crowd gathered at about 6 pm and headed for Ostrozhnaya Square, shouting anti-government slogans. But on the square the demonstrators were stopped by the Cossacks and the police. On the other side of the square, a crowd of loyal subjects of the sovereign gathered and rushed at the demonstrators with their fists. The pharmacist Heinze took out a weapon and fired at the pro-government-minded townspeople, wounding the cab driver Klochyev. The mob torn to death the novice revolutionary, and other fighters for the people's happiness suffered greatly from the people themselves. On July 11, the workers of the Sormovo plant incited the hook workers to strike, but they got into a fight, and the strikers began to shoot at the hook workers, killing six people, including the overseer of the river police Tumanov. In the Proletary newspaper, these events were colorfully described as clashes between revolutionaries and the "vile Black Hundreds" on July 9, 10 and 11.

The Security Department responded to these events on July 12 by seizing the printing house of the RSDLP and arresting most of the members of the "technical group" of the party. On September 8, 1905, another printing house was liquidated, two party members from the “technical group” were caught at work. The action was very successful, as active revolutionaries complained about the lack of propaganda literature. In addition, searches of members of the RSDLP helped to reveal aspects of the creation of a combat squad in Sormov, literature on the manufacture of explosives and the charter of a combat group were found. At the same time, the gendarme department liquidated the "Peasant Group" of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who had united with the Social Democrats. These actions normalized the situation until September, but already on the 1st day of this month strikes began, which by October were joined by seminarians, students and students.

A drawing of the bomb that was supplied to the fighting squad

Homemade cannon of the worker Parikov, who stood in the house near the main barricade in Sormovo

Homemade bomb-Macedonian, Sormovo production

Despite the manifesto of Nicholas II on the granting of freedoms, the operational situation in the city deteriorated. At the rallies held, agitation was carried out for the revolution and the creation of armed squads with the aim of overthrowing the autocracy. But on October 21, a patriotic party was formed in the city, and on the 23rd, a demonstration of the pro-government party took place, at which white flags appeared. The largest Black Hundred association in the empire began to be called the "White Banner".

In November, the situation escalated sharply in Sormovo. The workers created their own militia, subjecting policemen and gendarmes to shelling when the latter appeared on the Sormovo streets. The RSDLP had a city and Kanavinskaya fighting squads. In early December, the revolutionary militants were systematically armed. It all ended in a shootout in Sormovo between the police and the workers, but the very next day, December 13, the workers were building barricades and engaging in skirmishes with the troops. The troops had no losses.

In Kanavin on December 14, the guards of a revolutionary rally near the railway station opened fire on the attacking Black Hundreds, as a result, two attackers died. After that, the revolutionaries barricaded themselves in the station building. But already on the morning of the 15th, army artillerymen, after several hits on the station building, forced them to surrender.

In response to the speeches of the revolutionaries, Governor Fredericks forms a "patriotic squad" and arms it. The armed uprising was put down fairly quickly. The use of artillery in urban conditions has proven itself well. The security department, together with the Gendarme Directorate and the police, begins general searches of identified persons involved in revolutionary and terrorist activities. Already during the first searches in mid-December, encrypted lists of the fighting squad were found at the prominent revolutionary Zhdanovsky, and two laboratories for making bombs were discovered. On December 17, according to undercover information, two terrorists were detained who were trying to blow up the Makaryevskaya police unit. In parallel, searches were carried out at the militants of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, only 50 revolvers were seized. The most important thing was that by the end of December the activities of the strike committee, which coordinated the revolutionary measures, had been suppressed. At the beginning of 1906, active measures were taken against members of the RSDLP. On February 16, the party printing house was liquidated. In addition to the usual propaganda literature, many were found with weapons and explosive devices.

The remaining members of the RSDLP decided to direct their efforts to agitation of the peasants, but due to small funds and a lack of literature, this activity was not particularly successful. By August 1906, thanks to good intelligence work, the remaining group of members of the RSDLP was identified. On August 8, the activities of the underground printing house were suppressed, mass arrests were carried out. The Socialist-Revolutionaries, together with the anarchists, began to carry out "exes" to conduct their activities, that is, they engaged in banal robbery. Thanks to undercover information, many expropriators managed to be detained. On August 2, the fighting group of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (hereinafter referred to as the AKP) that remained at large was liquidated. Also, thanks to agents, a raid was prevented with the involvement of Moscow AKP militants on the State Bank. Only from April to October 1906, 3 mimeographs, 2 printing presses, 2 hectographs, false passports, 21 revolvers, 3 guns, 3 bombs and propaganda literature were confiscated. In September, at the direction of Stolypin, the department draws up lists of civil servants who are members of revolutionary organizations or sympathize with them, for further dismissal. Attacks on the Black Hundreds by the revolutionaries became quite frequent, on the other hand, the gendarmes themselves had to look after the "black hundreds" so that they did not stage pogroms. By the end of the year, the Nizhny Novgorod security department entered the central search area with subordination to the Moscow security department, the reform was carried out at the initiative of the Minister of the Interior, P. A. Stolypin, according to Trusevich's project.

From the beginning of 1907, anarchists began to loudly declare themselves. Especially mentally unbalanced revolutionaries, often prone to sadism, went to the anarchists, which increased their danger to ordinary citizens, inclusive. Already on March 10, anarchists robbed the factory office, stealing 1,165 rubles. At the same time, a group of anarchist communists was formed who broke away from the AKP, it was they who committed this robbery, but thanks to undercover data, almost all were soon detained. In August, the anarcho-communists who remained at large attacked the Surovatikha station, shooting two gendarmes, then robbed the Kamenskoye post office. 12 people were arrested in the case.

At the beginning of 1907, the jurisdiction of the Nizhny Novgorod security department was expanded to the backwater in view of the active revolutionary propaganda among rivermen and ship repairmen. Already in August, the employees of the branch liquidated the central bureau of the AKP Shipping Organization. As a result of arrests in this case, an underground printing house of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was discovered during a search. The gendarmes did not forget about the RSDLP either. In July, several forged passports, 58 seals of various institutions, and revolutionary literature were confiscated from party members in different apartments. This find helped expose a number of revolutionaries and their presence. Since May, the security department had to actively deal with the Union of Teachers, in which a large number of citizens were members of the RSDLP. On October 8, after a search of Kasatkin's only revolutionary brochures, 28 different titles were seized. In August 1907, members of the AKP agitated the printing workers of Mashistov to go on strike, but the demands were only of an economic nature, and after negotiations with the owner of the printing house, the strike ended, despite threats to the workers from members of the AKP.

The beginning of 1908 was marked by an aggravation of class relations in the countryside, which was associated with the Stolypin reform and the unwillingness of the peasants to leave the community. This forced the allocation of additional forces. On February 19, 1908, Captain Treshchenkov was replaced by Captain Erandakov. Since the anarcho-communists were under surveillance, the new head of the department was in for a surprise. During the robbery of the Malinovsky Skete, a member of the anarchist party was detained, who agreed to secret cooperation. Thanks to his information, members of a group of expropriators were detained, a weapons depot in Sormov was liquidated, and a secret printing house of the AKP was also liquidated there. In April, it became known from undercover sources about a group of anarchists, numbering 13 militants, who were preparing the assassination of the director of the Sormovo plant, Moskvin. To prevent crime, the members of the group were searched. As a result, 2 revolvers, 92 revolutionary brochures, and various poisons were seized. On April 28, an arrest and search took place at the home of the tradesman Andreev, the police carried it out on the personal order of the governor. Not coordinating their actions, as expected, with the Nizhny Novgorod security department, the police harmed the operational development of the gendarmes.

On March 4, 1908, a temporary military district court sentenced the peasant Pyotr Yegorovich Shtine to death by hanging. Shtine committed the murder of a theater worker and resisted the police during the arrest. On the same day, in the courtyard of the 1st building of the Nizhny Novgorod prison, the following criminals were hanged at night: Kuznetsov, Potarakin and Khlebopashtsev, well-known expropriators and murderers with revolutionary romance.

For the first time, the security department faced cases of betrayal of its employees. Bombs, revolvers and edged weapons were found in the cells of the revolutionaries in the Nizhny Novgorod prison. A search was conducted at the suspect in carrying prohibited items, as a result, 3 letters were found from a senior filer of the security department, who was immediately dismissed due to compromising circumstances. Another shameful incident involved the betrayal of a night watchman who worked for the AKP militants and gave descriptions of fillers and agents.

In May, the Sormovo organization of the AKP, having regained its strength, having received information about the upcoming layoffs, decided to carry out a series of assassination attempts on employees of the plant's administration in order to attract workers to its side. According to intelligence information, searches were carried out, but as a result, only forbidden literature was found. Unfortunately, the main punishment for terrorists was deportation to remote provinces of the empire. The next blow was dealt by the Nizhny Novgorod security department to the provincial organization of the AKP. On June 8, according to the information of the "Fiftieth" agent, the technical group of the AKP, which published the newspaper "Socialist" in a legal printing house, was liquidated. In July, the delegates of the party conference in Ryazan were arrested. In November, "Fiftieth" identified two Moscow emissaries of the AKP. On March 22, 1909, thanks to the same agent, the secret printing house of the AKP was liquidated. Also in 1908, the agents in the military units of the Nizhny Novgorod garrison gave installation data both to the agitators who worked with the soldier's environment, and to the soldiers who sympathized with them.

At the beginning of 1909, the anarcho-communists decided to move to active actions, they were run by 17-year-old Heinrich Yagoda. It was the future People's Commissar of Internal Affairs who advised visiting party members on the subject of robbing local banks, planned to receive weapons from Finland. But an agent appeared among the anarchists, and all the undertakings of the terrorists failed. Another group of anarchists extorted 50,000 rubles from the Kamensky merchants; to demonstrate the seriousness of their intentions, two explosions were made on the Kamensky steamers. The insolent terrorist called the owner of the ship from the hotel room. Captain Erandakov, who expected such a development of events, prepared himself in advance. He introduced himself as the owner's brother and began to drag out the negotiations, and at that time the gendarmes were already bursting into the room.

On March 22, 1909, thanks to the same agent, the secret printing house of the AKP was liquidated. Moreover, the newspaper "Volgar" described how the father and son of the Vlasovs, working on a set of the Black-Hundred newspaper "Minin" in the printing house, simultaneously printed out the proclamations of the Socialist Revolutionary Party on the "Boston" typewriter.

Also at the beginning of the year, AKP activists decided to kill the governor, since he was driving around at night to visit his mistresses completely unguarded. However, for some reason they did not commit a terrorist attack. In general, after the March searches and arrests and the seizure of the secret printing house on May 25, the party members regained their strength. The gendarmes did not forget about the RSDLP either. On August 11, arrests were made, a mimeograph and 300 brochures of a criminal nature were seized, and most importantly, correspondence containing important information. On December 6, according to intelligence data, the party library of the RSDLP was seized, only 807 books and pamphlets of a criminal nature were seized. On December 13, mass arrests of members of the RSDLP took place. On August 21, a congress of the Muslim Union of the AKP was to be held in Nizhny Novgorod. Members of the State Duma Gireev, Tukaev and St. Petersburg mullah Iskhakov were to take part in the work of the congress. By personal order of the governor, the congress delegates were searched, but nothing forbidden was found.

The year 1910 was marked by work within party organizations and various societies. For example, the Red Cross Society not only helped the families of arrested and exiled revolutionaries, but many of its members carried out SR propaganda. True, pro-government organizations also had to be watched. On August 1, Captain Erandakov transferred his affairs to Lieutenant Colonel Karaulov, 11 people were transferred alone to secret agents. But already on September 1, Lieutenant Colonel Karaulov handed over cases to Lieutenant Colonel Strekalovsky. He immediately began by getting to know the agents, and quite quickly the gendarmerie lieutenant colonel revealed a deceitful agent named "Rul" and began to acquire new agents. At the same time, a circular arrives on the involvement of security departments in counterintelligence activities. Two more circulars demanded that close attention be paid to Islamic and Jewish societies and organizations. And all this without increasing the staff of departments. After the auditor's visit to the Nizhny Novgorod security department, Lieutenant Colonel Strekalovsky received his first reprimand for playing cards in a social club, but even a year later, having received a similar remark, the gallant lieutenant colonel was still playing. Since the revolutionary organizations were under a relative intelligence "cap", the new boss decided to closely deal with all kinds of societies. A total of 104 societies and organizations were checked.

The year 1911 began with the liquidation of a group of Sormovo anarcho-communists. On February 2, activists of this group were arrested, after which serious groups of this kind did not appear until 1917. True, in August, the three activists who remained at large organized a robbery of the merchant Sotnikov, and then sent him a letter threatening to kill him, demanding 1,000 rubles. But soon they all left the city without visiting the merchant. And on September 23, the bomber Shamanin, who remained in the city, was searched, revolvers and revolutionary literature were seized. Also on April 30, searches were carried out at active members of the RSDLP, but only prohibited literature was seized.

Anarchists' verdict to their comrade. GKU GOPANO f.1866 op.1 d.143 l.1

On August 15, 1907, the Nizhny Novgorod leaflet newspaper reported that the corpse of Dmitriev, nicknamed "Burzhuichik", was found in the punishment cell in the 1st building of the Nizhny Novgorod prison. Suspicion fell on the cellmates: Kuznetsov, Sokolov and Potarakin. Patarakin was detained with a bomb on Blagoveshchensk Square, and Sokolov, Kuznetsov and Dmitriev were members of the Sormovskaya gang of expropriators "Terrorist Anarchists" led by a certain Spiridonov.

Leaflet "White Banner". GKU GOPANO f.1866 op.1 d.167 l.167

In 1912, 7 strikes were held at the Sormovo plant, economic demands were the main ones, but the last one, in November, was purely political in nature. The work of the department was complicated by a large group of newly arrived workers employed in the expansion of production. Also, many workers did not register at their new place of residence. On April 14, members of the RSDLP, who had gathered to discuss the organization of elections to the State Duma, were arrested on an undercover tip. In August, the Social Democrat Kondratiev was detained for propaganda among the soldiers, but the search did not turn up compromising materials. In November, a strike by Sormovo workers began against the execution of Sevastopol sailors. This forced the Security Department to pay close attention to the Sormovo group of the RSDLP, which had obviously grown stronger by that time.

1913 was the last year of the work of the Nizhny Novgorod security department. Half of the remaining employees were transferred in June to the Nizhny Novgorod provincial gendarmerie department to work at a search center. From the very beginning of the year, preparations began for the visit of Nicholas II to Nizhny Novgorod. From all over the empire, orientations came for revolutionaries who, according to intelligence data, were preparing an assassination attempt on the tsar. A plan of measures was developed to protect the sovereign. But, besides this, on January 24, the Police Department received a report on Governor Khvostov, who, in the elections to the State Duma, legally removed the prominent cadet Savelyev from the lists, which sharply undermined the position of right-wing forces in the city. But in view of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty and the arrival of the tsar, all this faded into the background. Since the beginning of the year, painstaking work began on checking the documents of all those entering the city. The crew of the tsar's ship was selected and tested. The whole city was divided into 14 districts, passes were introduced at the locations of the august person. 255 fillers worked in the city. On May 15 and 16, there were mass searches of unreliable persons. Since the coordination between the newly arrived members of the gendarmerie and the police turned out to be on top, as well as all the preliminary work, the Security Department coped with its last important task successfully. It should be noted that in the fight against terrorism, not only too liberal legislation interfered, but also a lack of understanding by Nicholas II himself of many processes within the country.

Sources
1. GKU TsANO funds: 179; 915; 916; 918; 919.
2. GKU TsANO fund 2 inventory 7 case 430
3. From the history of the Nizhny Novgorod special services. Volume 1. Nizhny Novgorod, 2003.
4. The revolutionary movement in Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod province. Gorky, 1971.
5. V. I. Lenin and the Nizhny Novgorod Revolutionary Workers. Gorky, 1986.
6. GKU GOPANO fund 1866 op 2 case 67.
7. Newspaper "Volgar" for March 24, 1909.
8. Simple as it is, really. Memoirs of Nizhny Novgorod residents about V. I. Lenin. Gorky 1988.
9. Ryzhakov Denis Germanovich “Political investigation bodies in the fight against the RSDLP and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1902-1917.” Abstract of the dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences. Nizhny Novgorod, 2009.

Okhrana is a local police department in Russia. It was in charge of political surveillance and investigation, had agents for surveillance - filers and secret agents sent to political parties and organizations. First appeared in St. Petersburg in 1866, Moscow and Warsaw in 1880. Abolished after the February Revolution of 1917.

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SECURITY DEPARTMENT

The Okhrana is a local political body. investigation of tsarist Russia. For the first time O. o. created in St. Petersburg in 1866, in Moscow and Warsaw in 1880. Existed until Feb. 1917. Original name. - "department for the protection of public safety and order", since 1903 - O. o. In 1914, there were 26 o. Formally, they were part of the office of police chiefs and mayors, retaining all the rights of independence. institutions, bodies of the Police Department. Main O.'s task about. was a politician. detective revolutionary. org-tion and otd. revolutionaries. The arrest and investigation on the basis of materials collected by O. o. was carried out by the lips. gendarmerie administration. Operated with the help of extensive special. agents of both "surveillance" - snitches, and secret agents "in the surveyed environment" (passive informants and active participants in the activities of revolutionary orgs - provocateurs). Main a part of each O. about. was the general office, subdivided into several. tables according to the functions of O. o. Peculiar branches of 7 large O. o. (Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis) were from con. 19th century "departments of secret censorship" or "black cabinets" at post offices, carried out on the instructions of O. o. perusal of correspondence. Moscow O. o. tried to claim the role of political organizer. investigation throughout Russia and its "methodological" center (see Zubatovshchina). O. o. capitals had special "detachments of fillers" ("flying" in Moscow since 1897 and "central" in St. Petersburg since 1906), which actually carried out their activities on the territory. throughout Russia, as well as special "registration bureaus" to check the security of all persons arriving in the capital. In addition to O. o., activities to-rykh extended to the territory. lips. or oblast; in 1906–14 there were 10 district oblasts; each of them united O.'s activity about. and lips. gendarme departments in the "district" of several. provinces, from 3 (Odessa) to 12 (Moscow), which gave them a certain independence and greater efficiency in the fight against revolution. movement. O. o. by 1914: Petersburg, Moscow, Baku, Belostok, Warsaw, Vilna, Vladivostok, Don, Yekaterinoslav, Irkutsk, Kiev, Lodz, Nizhny Novgorod, Nikolaev, Odessa, Perm, Riga, Samara, Saratov, Sevastopol, Tashkent, Tiflis, Tomsk, Kharkov , Chita, Yaroslavl. District districts: Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Vilna, Kiev, Odessa, Riga, Samara, Tashkent, Kharkov. Lit .: The fall of the tsarist regime. Stenographic reports of interrogations and testimony given in 1917 in the emergency consequences. commissions of the Provisional Prospect, vol. 1-7, L., 1924-27; Kozmin B. P., S. V. Zubatov and his correspondents, M.-L., 1928; Spiridovich A.I., Under the tsarist regime. Notes of the head of the security department, M., 1926; Volkov A., Petrogr. security department, P., 1917; Chlenov S. B., Moscow. Okhrana and its secret collaborators, M., 1919; Zhilinsky V., Organization and life of the security department during the time of tsarist power, "GM", 1917, No 9-10; Eroshkin N.P., Essays on the history of the state. pre-revolutionary institutions. Russia, Moscow, 1960. L. P. Eroshkin. Moscow.

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