CONVOY GUARDS, military formations that existed in Russia in the 19-20 centuries to carry out a special service for escorting persons held in custody. The following tasks were assigned to the escort guards: escorting prisoners sent in stages in the Russian Empire (except for the Grand Duchy of Finland and the Caucasus); accompanying them to external work and to government offices; assistance to the prison administration in the production of surprise searches and the elimination of riots in places of detention; external security of prisons (if necessary). The escort teams of the escort guards were subordinate to the heads of the garrisons and commandants, their training was carried out according to a special program.

Until 1811, the prisoners were escorted to Siberia by the Cossacks of the Don Regiment, stationed at distances in the Kazan province, and within the European part of the Russian Empire, this service was carried out by local disabled teams. Then this duty passed to the internal guard (since 1811). Since 1817, a staged system of escorting prisoners was introduced, and the statutes regulating it developed by M. M. Speransky were introduced: on exiles and on stages in the Siberian provinces (1822). For this purpose stage teams were used (from 1835 horse-stage teams, from 1862 on foot). The so-called pendulum staging system, proposed by artillery general P. M. Kaptsevich, improved and facilitated the escort service. After the abolition of the Separate Corps of Internal Guards in 1864, the escort of prisoners was entrusted to local troops. From the mid-1860s, the transfer of prisoners to Siberia was carried out only in the summer on carts and wagons with the help of preserved stage teams and transformed local teams, as well as by rail and on ships chartered for this purpose. For the general management of this service, a transit unit was created at the Inspectorate Department of the Military Ministry, which from December 1865 became part of the General Staff, where the post of chief inspector for the transfer of prisoners was established (he is also the head of the transit unit). With the formation of the Main Prison Administration in 1879, the position of chief inspector for the transfer of prisoners received dual subordination - the Ministry of Internal Affairs (since 1895 the Ministry of Justice) and the Military Ministry. The convoy service required certain skills, experience and special training, but the frequent change of teams allocated from various military units sometimes led to violations, improper use of weapons, etc. (in the mid-1880s, up to 350 thousand prisoners were escorted annually in the Russian Empire, and only 63 escort teams, consisting of 86 officers and 3347 lower ranks, had professional training).

In January 1886, by order of Emperor Alexander III, an escort guard was formed, consisting of 567 escort teams. The regular strength of the escort guards (1895) was: 99 officers, 1073 non-commissioned officers, 10,267 privates, 271 non-combatants. In June 1907, the Charter of the escort service was approved, in 1909 the “Code of routes and movement plans for stage parties” was drawn up, which included: 379 routes along hiking routes with a total length of about 28 thousand miles (about 30 thousand km), 216 routes along 37 railway lines , 40 planned water routes. During World War I, escort guard teams were involved in the evacuation of prison facilities, the expulsion of foreign citizens from the country, the escort of prisoners of war, the protection of military cargo and transport. After the October Revolution of 1917, the escort guards were reorganized, retaining the military structure, and were in double subordination: for the combat and economic part - to the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs (through the All-Russian General Staff), for the service - to the Main Directorate of Places of Confinement under the People's Commissariat of Justice (through the Punitive Department , since 1921 Central Punitive Department) of the RSFSR. In October 1922, the escort guards were transferred to the GPU under the NKVD of the RSFSR (since 1923 the OGPU of the USSR) and transformed into the Separate Corps of the Escort Guards. In 1924, the escort guards were transferred to the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs of the Union republics; in 1925, the Central Directorate of the Escort Guards (since September 1930, the Central Directorate of the Escort Troops) of the USSR under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created. The recruitment of the escort guards, as well as the supply of all types of allowances, was carried out by the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR, and its organization was unified with parts of the Red Army (platoon, company, battalion, regiment). After the formation of the NKVD of the USSR (1934), the escort troops became part of it with subordination to the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Guards (see Internal Troops).

Lit .: Bodies and troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia: A brief historical essay. M., 1996; Shtutman S. M. On guard of peace and tranquility: From the history of the internal troops of Russia (1811-1917). M., 2000; Internal and escort guards of Russia. 1811-1917: Documents and materials. M., 2002.

Transferring prisoners over long distances has always been a very difficult task for the state and an ordeal for millions of prisoners. According to historians, from 1761 to 1782, about 60 thousand people of both sexes went into exile and imprisonment along the Siberian Highway. Until the beginning of the 19th century, on average, a little more than two thousand people a year went “by stage” to Siberia.

To Siberia by stage

Russia's vast distances were granted by the annexation of Siberia in the 16th century. The vast expanses to the east of the Urals became not only a source of super profits from fur exports to the West, but also a natural “zone” created by nature itself for prisoners. Therefore, almost immediately after the pioneers, columns of exiles moved to the East.

In 1597, fifty residents of Uglich, accused in the case of the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, were exiled beyond the Urals to build the Pelym prison. In Russian history, they are considered the first exiles to Siberia.

According to historians, until 1645, in the first half century after the annexation of Siberia, about 1,500 people were sent to prison and exile beyond the Urals. The figure is very impressive for the prison population of Russia in those years.

The first description of the “stage” in Siberia in Russian literature belongs to the famous Old Believer archpriest Avvakum, who was exiled to Tobolsk with his family in 1654: “They also sent me to Siberia with my wife and children. And if there was a need on the road, then there is a lot to say, except to remember a small part. The archpriest gave birth to a baby; sick in a cart and taken to Tobolsk; three thousand miles (a verst equals 1066 meters, that is, a little more than a kilometer - MZ) for thirteen weeks they dragged carts and water and sledges half the way.

At the same time, the archpriest was a privileged exile, closely acquainted with the tsar and the patriarch. Ordinary prisoners had to overcome most of this painful path with their feet, in shackles and stocks.

By the beginning of the 18th century, there were about 25 thousand prisoners and exiles in Siberia. Their share in the composition of the Russian population east of the Urals was about 10%. The criminal exile to Siberia at that time was indefinite, many months and even many years of moving beyond the Urals was a difficult and overwhelming task for many. The way back was affordable for very few, only aristocrats and civil servants.

The first Russian exiles in Transbaikalia appeared in 1681. Only in a straight line from Moscow to the shores of Lake Baikal is over 4,000 kilometers, while the Siberian tract itself from the capital to Irkutsk totaled over 7,000 miles. It is no coincidence that this road almost immediately received the unofficial name of the “shackle path”.

According to historians, from 1761 to 1782, about 60 thousand people of both sexes went into exile and imprisonment along the Siberian Highway. Until the beginning of the 19th century, on average, a little more than two thousand people a year went “by stage” to Siberia. After the Napoleonic wars, when the construction of the easternmost section of the Siberian tract from Tomsk to Irkutsk was completed, the number of Siberian "stages" increased dramatically - up to 8 thousand annually during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I.

Siberian tract. Image: Museum of the History of Road Engineering in the Tomsk Region

The liberal reforms of Tsar Alexander II turn into an even sharper surge in the number of people transferred to Siberia - 296,582 people for the period from 1862 to 1881, that is, about 15 thousand a year. By this time, prison statistics already allow us to accurately calculate the number of prisoners in Russia.

The total number of those exiled to Siberia from 1807 to 1898 amounted to 864,823 people. According to the Prison Administration of the Russian Empire, as of January 1, 1898, there were 309,265 exiles and 64,683 members of their families in Siberia. In relation to the population of all Siberia, the exiles accounted for 5.4%.

From 1597 until the end of the 19th century and the opening of the railway to Siberia, more than a million exiles and convicts were "transported". They walked hundreds and even thousands of miles on foot, in chains, from stage to stage.

What is a stage

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, prisoners were sent to the place of serving their sentences from case to case, accompanied by archers of the Siberian order. Such movement of a significant number of people for thousands of kilometers, through several climatic zones, for several months, or even years, required special organization and constant attention from local and central authorities.

The delivery of convicts to Siberia was in charge of the Siberian, and then the Detective order. The convicts did not go “for the Ural stone” regularly, they went under the supervision of the so-called “express messengers”, who were fully responsible for their possible “missing”. In a number of documents from the beginning of the 18th century, orders to guards were preserved: “... if the convicts run away from you or you yourself, taking a ransom from them, let you go, then the governors will beat you with a whip and exile yourself instead of those people whom you led into exile.”

The prisoners went to Siberia on foot, shackled in leg irons and "hand glands", often several people were connected together by a chain. The most important criminals followed "in decks" or in iron collars on a chain, and the less important - simply in shackles. From the end of the 17th century, convicts being transported were branded and their nostrils were torn.

Under Peter I, a significant part of the prisoners were sent not to Siberia, but to the construction of canals and by rowers of the galley fleet in the Baltic. However, the first transit prison for stages to Siberia was built precisely at the beginning of the reign of the first emperor. Its construction is known from the order to the governors of the Verkhotursky prison (now the Sverdlovsk region) dated September 1, 1697: cities ... And when the time comes to let them go to the lower Siberian cities, let them go under guard to those cities according to Moscow paintings, who will be sent where ... "

The transported were not supposed to receive any food. Instead, they were allowed to eat at their own expense or beg for alms. However, during a long journey through Siberia, it was often necessary to go through completely deserted places, and then those being transported starved and died. Surviving archival documents give examples of such mortality. So in 1697, the “boyar son” Pyotr Meleshkin led a group of exiles from Tobolsk to Nerchinsk, including 624 souls, but only 403 people came to their destination. Of the 2151 prisoners sent from Solikamsk again to Nerchinsk, 517 exiles died of starvation and disease in seven weeks of transportation.

In the 18th century, the first stable transportation routes were formed. During the winter, prisoners sent to Siberia were taken to Samara or Kaluga. Here they waited for summer time and then went beyond the Urals. Along the Oka and Volga to Kazan, from Kazan along the Kama River to Perm, then on foot through the Ural mountains to the Verkhotursky prison, then along the Siberian rivers to Tobolsk and through Tomsk to Irkutsk and Nerchinsk.

The first attempt in the history of Russia to humanize the life of prisoners occurred in 1754, when it was forbidden to cut the nostrils of women escorted to Siberia - the decree of Empress Elizabeth read: , and the female sex from such remote places in Siberia cannot repair shoots ... "

Although the first attempts to systematize and streamline the stages were made under Peter I, it took another century to create a uniform and more or less clearly working mechanism. Mikhail Speransky, one of the most liberal politicians of the early 19th century, was the author of the classical system of “shackled” stages.

The "stage" reforms began due to the banal lack of soldiers to escort prisoners to distant stages - the Napoleonic wars were going on. Initially, in 1807, they tried to entrust the transfer to Siberia to the "service Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks" - an analogue of the Cossacks among the "foreigners" of the Urals. The Bashkir militia clearly could not cope with the escort service, and three years later this task was assigned to the Siberian "city Cossacks". And only in 1817, when, at the end of the wars in Europe, the shortage of soldiers ended, special “stage teams” were formed from the soldiers and officers of the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard (an analogue of the Internal Troops). In the same year, by a royal decree of December 25, the “tearing” of the nostrils of prisoners transported beyond the Urals was canceled.

In 1822, Mikhail Speransky, following the results of his tenure as governor-general of Siberia, developed the "Charter on the Exiles" and the "Charter on the stages in the Siberian provinces." For the first time in the history of Russia, a uniform system was created for transporting prisoners over vast distances from Moscow to Siberia. The term “Stage” itself was also legally fixed, although it has been used in administrative documents since the 18th century, when knowledge of the French language became part of the basic education of the Russian nobility and most of the technical terminology of that time went into the world from France. So the Russian "stage", in all its senses, including prison, comes from the French "Etape" - step, step.

First of all, the "Charter on Stages" determined the procedure for the activities of state bodies involved in the movement of prisoners. A special unified body for managing the stages was created - the Tobolsk order and its branches in the field, called "Expeditions about the Exiles". There were Kazan, Tomsk, Yenisei and Irkutsk "expeditions", and on the entire Siberian "shackle" tract from Moscow to Baikal, "stage" and "semi-stage" jails were created, located at a distance of 15-30 versts from each other - namely so many convicts shackled in shackles could pass during daylight hours.

Fragment of a portrait of Mikhail Speransky by artist V. Tropinin. Reproduction: RIA Novosti

The Tobolsk order on exiles received from all judicial institutions of the Russian Empire special notices about those sentenced to hard labor and exiled to the settlement, as well as orders for administrative expulsion from the Ministry of the Interior, governors-general and governors. On the basis of these sentences and orders, the Tobolsk order distributed all convicts and exiles throughout Siberia. However, despite the imperfection of the bureaucratic document flow, the distribution of prisoners took a lot of time, which led to many months of waiting and the accumulation of masses of prisoners in the stage jails.

It was then that the concept of “places not so remote” appeared in state documents, and then in the folk language, as an allegorical analogue of imprisonment. According to the regulations on punishments in the Russian Empire, the exile of criminals was divided into two types - “to remote places” (to Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia) and to “not so remote places” (the Urals, Western Siberia and the Caucasus).

2 kopecks per stage without a "cord"

Since 1822, for the first time, the prisoners being transported had documents - an “article list”, which was compiled in two copies and contained all the most important information about the person being escorted: a description of external data, a biography, information about the crime and the punishment. One copy of the "article list" was sent to the Tobolsk order, the second was handed over to the escort guards and, together with the prisoner, walked along the stage. In addition to the individual "article list", a list of all under guards was compiled - the so-called "party list".

The "Charter on Stages" regulated in detail the organization of the movement of prisoners. Here, for example, is one of the paragraphs of Chapter Three, “Movement of the Parties”: “§ 41. The movement of each party, starting on the scheduled weekday on the border of the Tobolsk province with Perm and in the cities of Tobolsk, Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, continues along the way with accuracy along appointment, so that a party enters each station once a week and on a certain day, moreover.

Paragraph 75 of the "Charter on stages" regulated in detail the measures of violence of the escort to the prisoners. An escorted person who “disobeyed the established order during the journey” was subject to “light corporal punishment.” With "clearly violent" it was necessary to act "to the fullest extent", and in relation to "daring to attack the escorts" it was already necessary to "act with weapons." It was also possible to “use weapons” against the fugitive, “who, without surrendering to the escorts, will threaten them ...”

The prisoners of that time walked along the stage, in chains. Until 1822, the use of shackles was not regulated; they were used to shackle all those being transported, regardless of gender and age. For the convenience of the escorts, the prisoners were shackled into one chain, sometimes several dozen people, and without separating the sexes. Eyewitnesses reported that sometimes men and women on stages remained chained to each other for several weeks.

In 1822, the state tried to streamline and mitigate the "shackle" practice. From now on, leg shackles were used only for males, women at the stage were supposed to have only hand shackles. The weight of the shackles was limited to 5 pounds (about 2.5 kg), and the hoops of the shackles covering the limbs were supposed to be sheathed with leather so that the metal would not injure the skin of the prisoners.

Since 1824, “manual fortifications” were used during escort to prevent escapes - this is how long iron bars were called in official documents of those years. For each such rod, ten handcuffs with prisoners were put on, and in this form, those transported moved many miles to the next stage prison. Since this system was proposed by Johann Dibich, at that time the chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, in the jargon of the convoys it was nicknamed the “Dibich rod”. Among the prisoners, this rod was called the "cord".

By decree of the Senate of 1830, prisoners sent to Siberia by stage, in order to make it difficult to escape, had their heads shaved by half every month. And so the long columns of prisoners moved along the Siberian Highway, strung ten “on a cord” with half-shaven heads, many with burnt brands on their foreheads and cheeks - “Cat” (convict), “G” (robber), “V” (thief ).

However, even such a staging system was a step forward compared to the staging practice of the 17th-18th centuries. Now the prisoners were supposed to be at least fed and placed under a roof in stage prisons, separating men and women into different cells.

However, the practice of law enforcement, as always, had its own characteristics. In 1828 Alexander Maslov, colonel of the gendarme corps, was sent to Siberia. He had to study how the newly created new transfer system works. The report of a high-ranking gendarme came out bleak - the stage prisons prescribed by the "Charter on Stages" were built on a truly Siberian scale of corruption and embezzlement. So, according to Maslov, most of the contractors who built these prisons were figureheads behind whom provincial officials were hiding. The local administration illegally forced the peasants to carry timber for free and work on the construction of stage prisons.

The construction itself was bad. Colonel Maslov reported to St. Petersburg that "there is not a single stage built with proper strength, and they have already begun to collapse." The stoves in these administrative "new buildings" were often made of unbaked bricks, and by the time Maslov arrived, they were already falling apart. The roofs, made of damp timber, dried up, and the rain poured through them on the prisoners. The walls of the prisons were built from the same damp forest, the wind roamed freely in the cells, "everything warped and the rafters bent." A week after the repair, in ten convoy prisons, inspectors found snow in the corners of the cells, and in one convoy prison, even piles of snow along the entire wall under the bunk beds.

Column of exiles, first half of the 19th century. Reproduction: RIA Novosti

No less corruption flourished at the stages themselves. The Decembrist Vasily Kolesnikov, who in 1827-28 went through the stage from St. Petersburg to Irkutsk, recalled that the prison administration and the guards literally squeezed money out of the prisoners for everything. For example, there was such a fee - for 2 kopecks a day, the escorts agreed not to chain the prisoner to the "Dibich rod" during the transition between stages. If the person being transported did not have money, then the head of the convoy agreed to withhold them "from the fodder sums", the money that the prisoner relied on for food during the stage.

For money, vodka was delivered to the prisoners, gambling with cards was allowed, men were allowed into women's cells. According to Kolesnikov, in "half-stages," in small stage prisons located away from the eyes of high authorities, women were usually placed overnight in the same room with escort soldiers.

Stage in the era of liberal reforms

In the 60s of the XIX century, during the era of reforms of Alexander II, they tried to liberalize the convoy practice. In 1863, corporal punishment for imprisoned women and branding of those transported to Siberia were abolished. In the following 1864, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire introduced new rules for escorting - the movement of chained prisoners on foot began to be partially replaced by transportation on horse-drawn carts.

From Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod there was the Vladimirsky tract, nicknamed by the people "shackled" - the first and most habitable, civilized part of the huge Siberian tract. Males sentenced to penal servitude walked, women and exiles were partially transported on wagons.

Leo Tolstoy at the end of the 19th century deliberately drove several times along the Vladimir "shackle" tract in order to study the transfer of prisoners. And in his late novel Resurrection, he describes such a stage:

“The gates opened with a thunder, the rattling of chains became more audible, and escort soldiers in white tunics, with guns, came out into the street and placed themselves in a regular wide circle in front of the gates. When they were established, a new command was heard, and in pairs the prisoners in pancake-shaped hats on shaved heads, with bags over their shoulders, dragging their shackled legs and waving with one free hand, and with the other holding the bag behind their backs, began to emerge.

First came the convict men, all in the same gray trousers and dressing gowns with aces on their backs ... Ringing with shackles, after walking ten paces, they stopped and dutifully placed themselves, four in a row, one after another. Following these, without stopping, the same shaved people, without leg irons, but shackled hand and hand with handcuffs, people in the same clothes flowed out of the gate. They were exiles... They just as briskly went out, stopped and were also placed four in a row. Then came the women, also in order, first - hard labor, in prison gray caftans and scarves, then - exiled women and voluntarily following, in their urban and rural clothes. Some of the women carried babies behind the skirts of their gray caftans.

Children, boys and girls, walked with the women on their feet. These children, like foals in a herd, huddled among the prisoners. The men became silent, only occasionally coughing or making curt remarks. Among the women, an incessant conversation was heard ... Despite the fact that all the prisoners were counted within the walls of the prison, the escorts began to count again, checking with the previous account. When everyone was counted again, the escort officer ordered something, and there was confusion in the crowd. Weak men, women and children, overtaking each other, went to the carts and began to place bags on them and then climb on them themselves ...

Several prisoners, having taken off their hats, approached the escort officer, asking him for something. They asked for carts. The escort officer silently, without looking at the supplicant, puffed on his cigarette, and then he suddenly waved his short hand at the prisoner, and he, pulling his shaved head into his shoulders, expecting a blow, jumped away from him. - I will make you so in the nobility that you will remember! You will walk! shouted the officer. Only one staggering long old man in leg shackles was let into the cart by the officer ... "

Leo Tolstoy, 1895 Reproduction: A. Belenky / RIA Novosti

Arrest "train"

From Nizhny Novgorod, the stage road passed through the Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Vyatka provinces to Perm. In total, from Nizhny Novgorod to Perm, there were 42 transition-stages, and it took the prisoner parties 59 days of transfer to overcome them.

In winter, prisoners were transported in sleighs, in summer on simple carts. The staging stopped during the spring and autumn thaws for two weeks. Such columns of sledges or wagons were called the "arrest train".

There were no seats or benches for the prisoners; instead, rope “bindings” were made attached to the edges of the wagon. Each wagon carried four prisoners and one escort, who sat next to the cab.

To prevent escapes, instead of hand and foot shackles and a common chain of “Dibich rods”, when transporting the “prisoner train”, a special chain was used on the prisoner’s leg, arshin long (about 70 cm), its end was attached to the wagon with a lock. Those seen in riot, disobedience, or "attempted escape" were chained to carts or sledges with a chain by the hands.

The keys to the chains were handed over to the non-commissioned officer in charge of the "train". He unchangingly exercised leadership throughout the route. Ordinary escorts were replaced at each "stage station".

From the overnight stages, the "arresting train" departed at 5-6 o'clock in the morning and moved all daylight hours at an average speed of 8 miles per hour. According to the rules, every two hours the "train" stopped for 10 minutes.

During the transfer, the prisoners received food at the rate of 10 kopecks per day per person for the "low classes" (peasants and townspeople) and 15 kopecks for the upper classes (prisoners from the nobility, clergy and merchants). Every day in the morning, each person transported was supposed to be given a pound (almost half a kilo) of bread and half a pound of boiled beef or fish with salt.

The tsarist bureaucrats carefully calculated that during the reign of Alexander II, the cost of moving one prisoner from Nizhny Novgorod to Tyumen cost the state 17 rubles 97 and a half kopecks.

Nizhny Novgorod - north wind

In the second half of the 19th century, railways revolutionized not only the economy and military affairs, but also the transfer of prisoners. In 1862, the railway began to work, linking Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. And two years later, the first regulation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the railway transportation of prisoners was issued.

For transportation, special trains of eight cars were used. Each of them accommodated up to 60 people. The payment for the transportation of prisoners was determined at 50 silver kopecks per wagon from each mile of the way.

Nizhny Novgorod has become an important transit point for the delivery of convicts on a long stage route from Warsaw and St. Petersburg to Perm and Tyumen and further across Siberia to Irkutsk and hard labor in Transbaikalia. From all the distant provinces of the Russian Empire, prisoners were taken by rail to Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1877, Emperor Alexander II approved the "Regulations on the Transportation of Prisoners by Rail" that was uniform for the entire empire. During the railway stages, the prisoners were supplied with "dry food". A day per person was supposed to be 3 pounds (1 kg 200 grams) of bread with salt. On fast days, half a pound of boiled meat was supposed to be, and on fast days, the prisoners were given boiled fish. Moreover, it was specifically forbidden to give out herring, dried, raw or salted fish.

By the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, the following order of escort had developed. Every year during the winter, prisoners were brought from all European provinces of the Russian Empire to the prisons of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. Nizhny Novgorod was then generally a kind of prison capital - in its vicinity there were seven stone and two wooden "prison castles", capacious by the standards of that time of transit prisons.

From the end of April, large parties of prisoners were sent from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod by rail in special trains. By this time, the rivers had already opened up from the ice, and from Nizhny Novgorod to Perm, three times a fortnight, convicts and exiles were rafted on barges.

Age-old Eastern Siberia

Large stages departed from Perm to Yekaterinburg twice a week. Mixed parties passed along this stretch - exiles on carts or sledges, convicts on foot. When sent from Yekaterinburg to Tyumen, the convict parties were already divided into smaller parties of 100-150 people. From Tyumen, throughout Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia, the prisoners followed to the places of serving their sentences all year round, as it was called in bureaucratic documents - "on foot-staged course."

In Eastern Siberia, the railway will appear only at the very end of the 19th century, so the foot stages will operate for a long time. So on the territory of the Irkutsk province in 1881 there were 28 stages and semi-stages, along which, according to centuries-old traditions, columns of prisoners were distilled on foot. Irkutsk was the main transshipment base for the stage route through Eastern Siberia. Here, the "shackle path" forked - some of the prisoners went beyond Baikal, to the Nerchensk state-owned factories and mines, others were transported to the north, to Yakutia.

The parties of prisoners brought in from the west along the Siberian tract in Irkutsk were placed in the two largest prisons in Eastern Siberia - in the Aleksandrovskaya central hard labor prison or in the Aleksandrovskaya transit prison, located nearby. Already in these prisons, parties of several tens or even hundreds of people were formed, who, accompanied by a convoy, were sent to the place of serving their sentences. If the prisoners got to the "Alexandrovsky Central" in late winter, they usually waited until the summer, and only in June, after the spring thaw, did they move on.

In Transbaikalia, before the infamous Nerchen penal servitude throughout Russia, there were another 33 stages, which the prisoners on foot overcame in a month and a half. Through Lake Baikal itself, the prisoners were transported on special ships called pauzkas. These were huge rafts on which barracks with bunks were built. Until 1886, convicts were sent to Yakutsk on foot. Later, they began to be rafted down the Lena River on the same rafts-pauses.

Transportation by exiled convicts of building materials to buildings in Gorny Zerentui. Nerchinsk penal servitude, late 19th century. Photo: Alexey Kuznetsov / runivers.ru

According to the “Instructions on the reception, dispatch and forwarding of exiles”, approved by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Baron Platon Frederiks on June 13, 1876, “on exiles, both on summer and winter clothes, it is unmissable to embroider: those who go to hard labor have two, and next to the settlement - one quadrangular flap on the back up to two inches in all directions of a distinctive color from the clothes. It was for such marks of prisoner clothing that the convicts in those days were called “tambourines” in the thieves' jargon. In addition, according to the instructions of Baron Frederiks, male prisoners sentenced to hard labor and belonging to the lower classes before being convicted were sent to the stages with the right side of the head shaved.

Each transit team was headed by an officer - in total in the Irkutsk province then 686 employees were engaged in escorting and transporting convicts, including 3 paramedics. The salaries of soldiers and junior officers of the stage teams were very small: the sergeant major received 24 rubles, the non-commissioned officer - 18, the corporal - 2 rubles 85 kopecks, and the private relied on 15 kopecks less than the corporal.

The officers employed in the escort service earned decently at that time. During the transfer of the prisoners, they were paid a daily allowance of 1 ruble per day each, "portion and welding money", 5 kopecks per day each "for improving food." As a reward for good service - that is, transportation without escapes - the officers of the escort teams received an annual bonus in the amount of the annual salary.

Transferring prisoners along the Siberian Highway was a costly affair. At the end of the 19th century, the transfer of one convict to Siberia cost an average of 125 rubles. But these are only direct costs, and taking into account all indirect costs, they are for the maintenance of “stage locks”, escort guards, etc. - this figure has already increased to 300 rubles, a very impressive amount for that time. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Main Prison Department of the Russian Empire was spending at least a quarter of its budget on transporting prisoners to Siberia.

Railway "stage"

The completion of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway significantly changed the conditions for the transfer of prisoners. On February 12, 1897, the “highest command” of Tsar Nicholas II followed, according to which the parties of exiles and convicts should be sent from central Russia to Siberia exclusively by rail. The pedestrian movement of the convict parties along the main Siberian highway was canceled, all stages and semi-stages were closed. On February 23, 1904, the Tobolsk Prikaz was liquidated, all its duties and archives were transferred to the Main Prison Directorate.

At the beginning of the 20th century, convict stages moved by rail on strictly allotted days, mostly once a week. In 1910, a new type of special carriage for 72 and 48 seats was introduced into the practice of transferring prisoners. The same "Stolypin carriage". Inside, it was divided into several rooms, one for the prisoners, the other for the escort team. At the end of the car there was a compartment for an autonomous steam heating boiler and a “boiler” boiler for tea.

The section for prisoners was taken away by a small lattice, which allowed the convoy to constantly monitor the convoys, who were located on benches screwed to the floor. For lighting at a height of two meters, small windows measuring 20 by 30 centimeters were cut, taken away with iron bars.

During such a railway stage, the prisoners were supplied with food at the rate of 10 kopecks of "feed money" per knock. At large stations in Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, the transported received hot food.

Escort of the prisoners was carried out by the ranks of the escort guards, a special service created for the transportation of prisoners and the protection of prisons in 1886. The escort guard was considered part of the armed forces, but was operationally subordinate to the Main Prison Directorate.

In 1907, the “Charter of the Escort Service” was approved, consisting of 13 chapters and 484 articles, which regulated in detail the structure of the escort guards, the escort system, the rights and obligations of escorts.

On the eve of 1917, 537 escort teams functioned throughout the vast Russian Empire. According to the state, almost 12 thousand officers and "lower ranks" served in them. 511 escort teams guarded stages in the European part of the empire, 19 - in Siberia and 7 - in Turkestan (Central Asia).

In the last year of the existence of the Russian Empire, the ranks of the escort guards transported prisoners along 219 permanent routes on 36 railway lines. There were also 40 permanent routes for transporting prisoners and exiles along the rivers of the Urals and Siberia. In Siberia, foot stages were also preserved - 219 permanent routes along foot paths with a total length of almost 28 thousand miles.

In the days of the revolution, the escort guards did not distinguish themselves by loyalty to the monarchy. Already on March 12, 1917, the head of the escort guard, Major General Nikolai Lukyanov, signed an order calling for loyalty and loyalty to the Provisional Government. Surprisingly, the chief escort of the Russian Empire retained his position even after the October Revolution - until May 1918, without a general's shoulder straps, he led the escort guards of the People's Commissariat of Justice, reporting to People's Commissar Isaac Steinberg, a Left Social Revolutionary, whom in 1907 he transferred as an exile to the Tobolsk province.

The last head of the royal stages will part with his life in 1937 - and, no less surprising for this year, he will die a natural death at the age of 76, receiving a pension from the Soviet government until the end.

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Introduction

1. The development of internal troops in pre-revolutionary Russia

1.1 Development of the internal troops of the Russian Empire

1.2 Formation of the escort service in pre-revolutionary Russia

2. The history of the development of the escort service in the Soviet period

3. Formation of the charter of the escort service

Conclusion

Used Books

• Introduction
• escort service army charter
• Fundamental changes in the provision of escort service in Russia took place during the reign of Emperor Alexander I.
• The development of the escort service took place over 200 years. The creation and development of the escort service began in 1811 and continued until the end of the 20th century.
• At present, the security and escort units of the police escort and guard persons held in temporary detention centers to pre-trial detention centers, accused of conducting investigative measures, to forensic medical institutions, to exchange offices for transfer to planned convoys.
• Based on the foregoing, the relevance of the following research topic follows: "The history of the development of the escort service."
• The purpose of the work is to study the history of the development of the escort service.
• To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:
• - Consider the development of the escort service in the pre-revolutionary period;
• - Analyze the development of the escort service during the Soviet era;
• - Explore the history of the development of the charter of the escort service.
• The methodological basis of the work is the works of domestic authors.
• 1. Developmentinternaltroopsinpre-revolutionaryRussia
• 1.1 DevelopmentinternaltroopsRussianempires
• On July 3, 1811, Alexander I approved the Regulations for the internal guard, which determined its purpose and tasks. They were:
• - fight against robbers, robbers and other criminals;
• - Detention of fleeing criminals and deserters;
• - fight against smuggling and prohibited goods;
• - ensuring order and security during public events - fairs, folk festivals, church festivities;
• - rendering assistance to the population in case of natural disasters - floods, fires and others, escorting prisoners, prisoners of war, recruits, the state treasury (large sums of money) and other law enforcement tasks.
• The first commander of the internal guard was General E.F. Komarovsky, a professional military man, a participant in the Italian and Swiss campaigns (1799) of the Russian army under the command of A.V. Suvorov, then assistant to the St. Petersburg military governor. Experienced and talented administrator and military leader E.F. Komarovsky led the internal guard for more than 17 years.
• Since 1816, the internal guard became known as the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard. Its structure and tasks have been supplemented and changed over time. So, in 1817, the St. Petersburg and Moscow gendarme divisions and gendarme teams in provincial and large port cities were established as part of the internal guard.
• By royal decree of July 25, 1829, 5 linear battalions and 3 mobile companies were formed to protect the mining plants of the Urals and Nerchinsk, where gold and silver were mined, the St. Petersburg Mint. They were supported by the Ministry of Finance. We can say that these were the first units for the protection of important industrial facilities and escort of special cargo.
• Radical transformations of the internal guard took place in the 60s of the XIX century in the course of the military reform being carried out in Russia. Then the district command and control system was introduced in the Russian army. The entire territory of the country was divided into military districts. In August 1864, the headquarters of the Separate Corps and the district of the internal guard were abolished, and the brigades and battalions were reorganized into the corresponding units of the local troops, which also included escort teams. Local troops were part of the corresponding military district. The district commander had an assistant in command of local troops.
• In terms of structure, local troops differed little from the internal guard: in each province, a local brigade was stationed, which included battalions and county teams that performed the tasks of escorting prisoners and assisting the police in maintaining public order.
• But no matter how the military formations for ensuring internal order and security are called - internal guards or local troops, their personnel at all times were faithful to the oath and military duty, performed their tasks with honor and dignity, as evidenced by numerous examples.
• In November 1824 St. Petersburg suffered a severe flood. It is described by A. S. Pushkin in the poem "The Bronze Horseman". Together with other forces, units of the internal guard, led by commander General E.F., entered the fight against the raging elements. Komarovsky. They rescued drowning people, dismantled rubble, restored dams and bridges. The distribution of hot food and warm clothes to the affected population was organized, and medical assistance was provided. Energetic actions, clear orderliness of General E.F. Komarovsky, the courage and dedication of the soldiers and officers were highly appreciated by the emperor.
• Along with floods, fires were a real disaster for wooden Russia. Hundreds of villages burned to the ground every year. Seriously suffered from the fiery element and the city.
• In 1845, in the small town of Yaransk, the former Perm province, one of the houses caught fire. The fire threatened to spread to neighboring buildings, and then the whole city would have blazed. The guards of the local team, led by Lieutenant Zanegin, were the first to arrive at the fire. The officer, being in the immediate vicinity of the fire, with his clear orders skillfully directed the actions of his subordinates, instilled in them confidence and courage. Yaransk was saved. The commander of the 4th district of the internal guard informed all parts of the district about the selflessness of Lieutenant Zanegin and his subordinates.
• In the fire, the guard of the Astrakhan battalion, Private Yegor Nagibin, also distinguished himself. In July 1858, he served at the post at the Church of Our Lady of Kazan. During the service, a fire broke out in the church. The sentry, preventing panic among people fleeing the fire, ensured the maintenance of order, the protection of church values. Tsar Alexander II became aware of the courageous behavior of E. Nagibin, who granted the soldier 50 rubles in silver, a considerable amount for that time.
• Thus, the internal troops, as a separate branch of the armed forces of the Russian Empire, began to form during the reign of Alexander I. During the years of the formation of this type of troops, reforms were carried out aimed at improving the conditions for serving in the internal troops, which include the creation of detachments for protection of strategically important facilities, as well as various structural changes both in the internal troops of Russia and in the local troops of the Russian provinces.
• 1.2 Formationescortservicesinpre-revolutionaryRussia
• The escort service arose in the Russian Empire in connection with the need to monitor and control convicts.
• Fundamental changes in the provision of escort service in Russia took place during the reign of Emperor Alexander I. On March 27, 1811, he issued a decree on the replenishment of the internal troops and escort service at the expense of regular companies transferred back in January 1811 "from civilian to military authorities", garrison battalions, which became known as provincial battalions and were soon merged into a single structure - the internal guard of Russia. The battalions of the internal guard made up a brigade, and the brigades were part of the district of the internal guard. Initially, the territory of the European part of Russia was divided into eight districts. Each of them had a serial number and geographically covered several provinces. Subsequently, the number of districts reached 12. The Internal Guard was part of the Russian Military Department.
• The next stage in the reform of the internal security forces took place in 1886, when the escort teams were consolidated into escort guards. By order of the Military Department of May 16, 1886, it was prescribed to form 567 (actually 530) teams for escort service on the basis of the existing stage, escort and local teams. The escort guard was entrusted with:
• - escort of prisoners of all categories sent in stages along the routes of European Russia (with the exception of Finland and the Caucasus) and along the main exiled Siberian route;
• - escort of prisoners of the civil department to external work and to judicial institutions;
• - assistance to the prison administration in the production of sudden searches and suppression of riots in places of detention;
• - implementation of external protection of prisons where it will be recognized as necessary.
• The new teams of escort guards were named after their places of deployment (Moscow escort team, etc.). These units were completed on general army grounds. At the same time, preference was given to quick-witted, quick, physically strong recruits.
• Difficult, requiring great exertion of physical and moral strength, constant readiness for action was the service of the personnel of the escort teams. In June 1859, a convoy accompanied a party of prisoners. When crossing the bridge over the river. Berezin, one of the criminals threw himself into the river. The escort, private Khariton Fedoseev, did not lose his head, boldly jumped after the fugitive, detained him, pulled him out of the water and put him in a convoy of prisoners. The brave and determined soldier was encouraged by the commander of the internal guard corps.
• On the night of August 9-10, 1910, the Tsarevna steamer, following the prisoners up the Volga, collided with a tugboat and began to sink. The escort of the Astrakhan escort team under the command of Captain Aivazov, acting in an organized, selfless manner, saved everyone on the ship, for which he used two fishing boats. A report about this incident and the brave actions of the convoy reached Tsar Nicholas II, who personally wrote on it: "Thank you all for the selfless performance of duty."
• Taking into account the difficulties and stressful nature of the escort service, and most importantly, its social significance, Minister of Justice N.V. Muravyov petitioned the Russian emperor for the introduction of an award specifically for the lower ranks of the escort guards. The petition was granted and, starting in 1904, the escort soldiers were awarded a silver medal with the inscription "For Diligence" on a ribbon to be worn on the chest. It should be noted that in the army, only non-commissioned officers of extra-long service were awarded this medal for long service and subject to impeccable service.
• The recognition of the merits of the internal and escort guards before the people and the Fatherland was the celebration on March 27, 1911 of the 100th anniversary of the local troops and escort guards. The Highest order was issued by the Military Department, in which Emperor Nicholas II declared "highest favor" to all officer and class ranks, and "royal thanks" to the lower ranks.
• In honor of the anniversary, a badge was established for presentation: to officers - from silver; the lower ranks are made of white metal.
• The division into officer and lower ranks that existed in the Russian army, local troops, escort guards, which caused discontent among the soldiers and was condemned by progressive officers, was abolished after the fall of tsarism and the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia.
• Over the years, glorious military traditions have been formed - loyalty to the oath and military duty, courage and courage, bravery and courage, high vigilance and incorruptibility, steadfast overcoming of the difficulties of service, military camaraderie and mutual assistance.
• March 27, the day of the organization of internal troops during the time of Alexander I, became the Day of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which was established in 1996 by decree of the President of the Russian Federation.
• Thus, the foundations of the organization and implementation of the escort service were laid in the Russian Empire. Of particular interest in this regard is the selection of candidates for service in the escort troops, because. preference was given precisely to physically strong and quick-witted recruits. Also important is the formation of high morale and respect for the position held in the internal troops.
• 2. StorydevelopmentescortservicesinSovietperiod
• After the February Revolution, local troops and guards voluntarily transferred to the service of the new government. On March 12, 1917, the chief inspector for the transfer of prisoners, Lieutenant General N.I. Lukyanov, together with the officers of his office, swore "allegiance to the service of the Motherland" and the "Provisional Government", which he informed his subordinates in order No. 1. It also expresses condemnation of the orders that prevailed in the troops under tsarism.
• “The former fortress system in the troops,” the order said, “caused quite well-founded dissatisfaction with the soldiers, and often the officers ... I do not allow the thought of the possibility of further stay in the service in the escort guards of persons committed to the old order, disastrous for the state.”

In 1917 the old army was disbanded. The escort guard has not undergone significant changes, continuing to perform its functions in a reformed form under the Soviet regime.

The October Revolution broke the old state institutions of power, but it soon became clear that it was impossible to manage the country without power structures. Already the first days of the existence of Soviet power showed that in order to establish a new system, not only the army, navy, and government bodies are needed, but also special forces to prevent counter-revolutionary actions within the country and fight against them, establish and maintain revolutionary order in the localities, protect important institutions, enterprises, railways, escort and protection of counter-revolutionary elements, criminals and other tasks.

The process of creating internal troops took the whole of 1918 and part of 1919. These troops were heterogeneous, their core was the armed formations of the Cheka.

On May 28, 1919, a resolution of the Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense "On Auxiliary Forces" was adopted. Now these formations began to be called the troops of the internal protection of the Republic (VOKhR). This event was a milestone in the construction of the internal troops of the Soviet state.

On September 1, 1920, on the basis of the troops of the internal security of the Republic and other formations, the troops of the internal service of the Republic (VNUS) were created. On January 19, 1921, the VNUS troops were transferred to the military department. The exceptions were the units serving the emergency commissions, as well as the railway and water police, which in all respects were subordinate to the Cheka, and later the GPU - OGPU. Along with the solution of special tasks, the troops were often involved in combat operations at the front.

The success of the industrialization of the country, the growing importance of railway transport in the economy and defense of the USSR led in the late 1920s and early 1930s to the formation of such an integral part of the OGPU troops as the troops for the protection of important industrial facilities and railway structures.

By the end of the 1930s, there was a need to reorganize the command and control of the NKVD troops, which was due to the constant increase in the volume of tasks they performed, the diversity and difficulty of control of the troops.

During the Great Patriotic War, along with guarding the rear of the army in the field, fighting enemy landings, saboteurs, nationalist gangs, units and formations of the internal troops took a direct part in the battles against the Nazi invaders. It is estimated that during the years of the war, 53 divisions and 20 brigades of the NKVD troops were part of the active army at different periods and participated in the battles. In addition, the NKVD of the USSR formed and transferred to the front 29 divisions.

In the post-war years, the number of internal troops decreased by half. The volume of tasks performed by the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises and railways has also been significantly reduced. The new situation made it possible to gradually move from military protection of railway facilities and industrial enterprises to a paramilitary one.

In January 1947, in order to increase the effectiveness of ensuring state security, operational units, and in April 1948, special units of the troops were transferred from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the USSR Ministry of State Security. As part of this department, they were until March 1953, and then were again reassigned to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Important organizational measures for the construction of the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB were carried out in 1951. During this period, the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises and railways were abolished, and their functions were transferred to the paramilitary guards. The escort troops were also significantly reduced; they were reorganized, together with the internal troops, into escort and internal guards.

On March 15, 1953, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security were merged into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. In this composition, they were until 1954, when the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR was formed. The formations and units of the internal and escort guards remained part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the border troops became subordinate to the KGB.

In January 1960, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was abolished. Its functions are transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Union republics. The Main Directorate of Internal and Convoy Troops also ceased its activities. From that moment and for the next six years, there was no single body for command and control of internal troops in the country. In each union republic where troop directorates and departments were formed as part of the ministries of internal affairs, issues of troop development were resolved differently, based on local conditions. The lack of unity in the leadership of the troops had a negative impact on their service and combat activities. Therefore, in 1966, the Union-Republican Ministry for the Protection of Public Order of the USSR (MOOP USSR) was created.

As part of the newly created ministry (since November 25, 1968, it became known as the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs), the Main Directorate of Internal Troops was formed.

On March 21, 1989, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a Decree "On the withdrawal of border, internal and railway troops from the Armed Forces of the USSR." The decree spread among the troops the order, conditions and terms of service, recruitment in the same way as for the Soviet Army and Navy, and preserved the order of their material, technical and financial support.

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, there was a sharp aggravation of the internal political situation in a number of regions of the former USSR, sharp conflicts arose on an interethnic basis. One of the forces that extinguished the flames of discord in hot spots was the internal troops. The history of the troops of this period keeps the memory of numerous examples of selfless performance of military duty, courage and courage, for which thousands of servicemen were awarded orders and medals, and Lieutenant Oleg Babak, who in April 1991 performed a feat while protecting the inhabitants of one of the Azerbaijani villages from Armenian militants, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Thus, the development of the escort service in the USSR took place from 1918 to 1991. During this time, the employees of the escort service showed their best side.

3 . Formationcharterescortservices

The issue of issuing a single normative act regulating escort guards, which has long been brewing, has been further developed. Thus, the commander of the Vilna Military District announced the need to draw up a Code of Rules for the Convoy Service, since the instructions on this issue contained in the Charter of the Garrison Service, and in addition, in separately issued orders and circulars, represent very extensive and complex material, which is very it is difficult, especially for the lower ranks, who have recently entered the service. Instructions regarding the escort service were placed in orders for the Military Department, in the circulars of the General Staff, the Chief Inspector for the Transfer of Prisoners and the Main Prison Department from 1857 until the beginning of the 20th century. It was necessary to streamline all these documents, identify errors and contradictions contained in them. RGVIA. F. 400. Op. 8. D. 463. L. 21. For this, a special commission was created from two chiefs of escort teams and one district military commander who had this unit under his command. Thus, the commission consisted of persons who knew firsthand the difficulties and peculiarities of the escort service. Work was constantly carried out to systematize and improve the legal framework. So, in 1903, the brochure “Detailed set of questions and answers of the escort service” was published, in which, in a concise and accessible form for the lower ranks of the escort guards, the tasks facing the escort teams, the procedure for organizing and performing service, etc. were explained. Anyone could buy it through a network of bookstores. By 1907, the draft Charter of the escort service was almost ready. The development of this document was attended by such specialists as the commander of the escort guards, General Sapozhnikov. The development and publication of this bill was caused by the absence of any official manual covering the set of rules for the service for escorting prisoners by ranks of the escort guards, as well as the difficulty of finding the necessary information in legal acts issued at different times (orders, circulars, explanations and instructions of the General Staff , the Main Prison Directorate and the Chief Inspector for the Transfer of Prisoners). The charter of the escort service was called upon to unite all the rules of the escort service and give precise instructions to all ranks in the performance of their official duties assigned to them in accordance with the Highest Command on January 20, 1886. On June 10, 1907, the Charter of the escort service was approved and entered into force - so called a two-year test, which was supposed to identify possible shortcomings in its preparation. Like other military charters, the charter of the escort service clearly established the duties of the unit, the procedure for transporting prisoners, the number of personnel of the escort guards required for this, its uniform and weapons, accompanying documents, the procedure for travel allowances sent and much more. In addition, with the publication of the Charter of the escort service, parts of the field, reserve and local troops also received leadership in case they were involved in the escort of prisoners (Article 22 of the Charter). Since that time, the duties of the escort teams include: a) escorting prisoners of all departments along the railways, waterways and pedestrian routes; b) escort of persons sent during stage games (Article 31); c) escorting prisoners as they travel from places of detention of a civil department to railway stations, steamship piers and back; d) escort of prisoners in the area of ​​cities from places of detention of a civil department: (clauses 4, 5, 6, 7 of article 2 of the Us. Sod. under the page ed. 1890) to judicial institutions, to judicial and military investigators , to officials investigating criminal cases, and to other public places, to a hospital and a bathhouse located outside prisons; e) escorting, separately from other prisoners, the persons listed in Art. 27 of the Charter; g) assistance to the prison authorities in the conduct of searches in places of detention of a civilian department; h) assistance to the prison authorities in stopping the unrest among prisoners in places of detention of a civilian department; i) external protection of places of detention of a civil department: 1) in the form of a permanent measure - subject to a corresponding increase in the staff of the subject escort teams (Highest command November 4, 1886, p. f. article 16 P.S. 3989) and 2) in exceptional cases, as a temporary measure, with the permission of the commanders of the troops in the districts. The subordination of the escort guards was also clearly fixed. From now on, all escort teams for the duties of the escort service were subordinate only to the Chief Inspector for the transfer of prisoners. With the introduction of the Charter of the escort service, a number of legislative acts in the sphere of regulation of the escort service lost their force: 1) instructions to the senior escort non-commissioned officer when escorting convict parties along pedestrian routes (Circular of the General Staff of 1881 No. 169); 2) a number of paragraphs of the regulation on the transportation of prisoners by rail (Order on the military department of 1877 No. 116) due to their replacement by the corresponding articles of the Charter of the escort service; 3) chapter IV of section III of the Charter of the garrison service; 4) other orders for the military department of the General Staff, circulars of the Main Prison Directorate and the Chief Inspector for the Transfer of Prisoners concerning the escort service, with the exception of issues not covered in the Charter of the escort service. The second chapter of the Charter fixes the general conditions of escort service. Thus, the legislator fixed that the escort is a person who performs official duties assigned to him in accordance with the Charter from the moment of his speech from the barracks until the moment of the report on the end of the business trip. In addition, according to the Charter, the ranks of the escort guards are prohibited from entrusting any assignments that are not related to the duties of the escort service. Charter of the convoy service. 1907. Art. 21. With the introduction of the Charter of the escort service, control over the quality of the performance of official duties by escort teams was strengthened by the Chief Inspector for the Transfer of Prisoners, whose duties included personal inspection of the teams and checking the conduct of official records. In addition, the heads of the escort teams addressed the Chief Inspector with a presentation on the movement of personnel in the service, encouraging distinguished officers and lower ranks, etc. The charter of the escort service established the conditions that must be satisfied by the stage premises, the construction of which was carried out along the route of the prisoners' parties. Since earlier in the regulatory legal acts in force before 1907 there were no precise instructions regarding the stage premises, it was considered necessary to legislate the conditions that the stage building must satisfy, namely: that the room eliminate the possibility of escape, have a compartment for the separate keeping of prisoners different categories (men, women and children) and was convenient for guards with a small number of posts. Thus, the Charter of the escort service, which regulates the activities of the escort with prisoners, provides for literally every step and every movement of this escort, placing its activities within strictly defined limits. By 1909, more than two years had passed since the introduction of the draft Charter of the escort service. Numerous inspections carried out by the Chief Inspector for the Transfer of Prisoners were supposed to facilitate the assimilation of the requirements of the Charter by all ranks of the escort guards, as well as their precise and rigorous implementation. The bulk of service violations were reduced to the following violations: 1) weapons, when they are not on escort, are not stored in places safe from abduction by prisoners (Article 196 of the Criminal Code); 2) leaving prisoners without proper supervision (Article 194); 3) reception of prisoners in places of detention without a search (Article 122); 4) permission for prisoners to have money with them (Article 142); 5) the outer doors of the prison wagons contrary to Art. 212 are not always locked both on the way and during stops; 6) Order No. 5 on escort teams for 1908 on the need for escorts to observe themselves and demand from prisoners to clean the cars if they are dirty is not observed. Prison Bulletin. 1909. No. 12. S. 1133. To eliminate these violations, it was ordered to increase attention to the education and training of ranks of the escort guards. In addition, it was extremely important to know exactly in what cases and under what rules the escort has the right to release a prisoner handed over to him from custody, without violating the rules of guard duty and without being liable in court for the release. All these rules, as well as the procedure for the return of acquitted or released from liability prisoners to places of detention from the court, were indicated in Art. Art. 382, 392 - 399 of the Charter of the escort service. The charter of the escort service has become a fundamental act in the entire system of transferring prisoners,

On May 13, 1938, by order of the NKVD of the USSR N 091, the Provisional Charter of the escort service of the worker-peasant militia was announced.

Thus, today the charter of the escort service differs little from the charter adopted in 1938. At present, the security and escort units of the police escort and guard persons held in temporary detention centers to pre-trial detention centers, accused of conducting investigative measures, to forensic medical institutions, to exchange offices for transfer to planned convoys.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the internal troops, as a separate branch of the armed forces of the Russian Empire, began to form during the reign of Alexander I. During the years of the formation of this type of troops, reforms were carried out aimed at improving the conditions for serving in the internal troops, which include the creation of detachments for the protection of strategically important objects, as well as various structural changes both in the internal troops of Russia and in the local troops of the Russian provinces.

In the Russian Empire, the foundations for the organization and implementation of the escort service were laid. Of particular interest in this regard is the selection of candidates for service in the escort troops, because. preference was given precisely to physically strong and quick-witted recruits. Also important is the formation of high morale and respect for the position held in the internal troops.

The development of the escort service in the USSR took place from 1918 to 1991. During this time, the employees of the escort service showed their best side.

Today, the charter of the escort service differs little from the charter adopted in 1938. At present, the security and escort units of the police escort and guard persons held in temporary detention centers to pre-trial detention centers, accused of conducting investigative measures, to forensic medical institutions, to exchange offices for transfer to planned convoys.

Usedliterature

1. Avdakov Yu.K. Borodin V.V. History of the socialist countries. - M.: VLADOS, 1985. - 197 p.

2. Voshchanova G.P. Godzina G.S. History of the Russian Empire. - M.: Enlightenment, 1998. - 177 p.

3. Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. - M.: Enlightenment, 2003. - 243 p.

4. Nazarov M.G. Recent history. - M.: Enlightenment, 1985. - 176 p.

5. Nerovnya T.N. History of Russia: in questions and answers. - M.: Enlightenment, 1999. - 204 p.

6. Starikov N.V. Russia 20th century: politics and culture. M.: VLADOS, 1999. - 137 p.

7. Timoshina T.M. Russian history. - M.: VLADOS, 2002. - 213 p.

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Characteristics of the legal and theoretical foundations of military service. Analysis of the legal status of military personnel. The procedure for military service by conscripted and contracted servicemen. Legislative acts regulating the procedure for its passage.

The impetus for the design of the internal (escort) guards as an independent specialized structure was a noticeable increase in the number of convicts and exiles from the time of Peter the Great. During the reign of Alexander I for 1807-1823. only the number of those exiled to Siberia turned out to be more than 45.4 thousand people, i.e. 2.7 thousand people per year referred. Moreover, the number of exiles was constantly growing, by 1898 an average of up to 13.2 thousand people were exiled per year. And the total number of those exiled for 1807-1898. exceeded 864.8 thousand people!

It is clear that the escort and supervision of such a large number of people really constituted a serious problem at the state level.

Since 1807 convoying stages to places of hard labor and exile the Russian government on the initiative of the first Minister of Internal Affairs V.P. Kochubey was assigned to the Bashkirs and Meshcheryaks, who were enrolled in the military class.

Created in 1798, the Bashkir-Meshcheryak irregular army initially served on the Orenburg border line, which covered Russian territory from raids by nomads from Kazakhstan. But as a border guard, the army was not considered sufficiently reliable by the authorities, because. The Bashkirs have long maintained good contacts with the Kazakhs. That is why the army was increasingly used as an escort guard, involved in the implementation of direct police functions, incl. and outside Bashkiria. Moreover, with its renaming into the Bashkir army and subsequent transformation into a regiment, it was completely transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and worked exclusively within its powers.

However, the involvement of the Bashkirs and Teptyars in the escort service did not solve her problems. And since 1810, the Cossacks, by agreement of the state with the military Cossack societies, again began to be involved in the performance of escort and guard duty, the implementation of the functions of the internal guard.

The legal basis for the creation of internal provincial battalions was the manifesto of July 25, 1810, signed by Alexander I, which proposed the creation of a new institution in the law enforcement system of Russia, designed to perform the function of maintaining law and order within the country. Shelestinsky D. G. Organizational and legal foundations for the formation and development of the Rossini escort guards: historical and legal research. - M., 2006. P.45.

According to the manifesto of July 25, 1810, a phased system of transferring prisoners was introduced, which required significant changes in the structure and organization of the troops intended for this, as well as in the regulatory framework.

The imperial decrees of January 16, 1811, on the formation of new regiments based on garrison battalions, and March 27, 1811, on the reform of disabled companies and teams, served as the final legislative basis for the creation of the internal guard.

So in 1811 a new structure appeared - the Internal Guard (since 1816 - a separate body of the internal guard).

Convoy guards in the 19th century

The escort guard, which was intended to escort prisoners, suppress unrest in places of detention and external guards of prisons, was subordinate not only to the military leadership, but also to the head of the Main Prison Directorate.

The regulatory framework for the legal regulation, recruitment and service of the personnel of the escort guards was fragmented, consisted of a mass of regulations adopted at different times and sometimes contradictory. The management, staffing, and material support of these military-police structures also needed to be improved, which was especially acute in connection with the increase in the number of convicts. The charter of the escort service is the basic law for the ranks of the escort guards of Russia. // History of state and law. - 2006. No. 4. P.7

The change in the socio-political situation in the country required a revision of the entire system of escorting prisoners. The number of personnel that was previously involved was no longer able to ensure the safety of the transfer of prisoners.

The increase in the number of exiles every year required not only the strengthening of discipline among the soldiers and officers of the convoy units, but also an increase in the number of their personnel, as well as their material provision with housing, uniforms, and food. These problems were most acute in Siberia, where the bulk of the prisoners were sent.

An attempt was made to involve garrison troops and battalions in the escort, but it did not find support from the Minister of War and it was decided to abandon it. Instead, a stage system was introduced for escorting prisoners, for which stage teams were organized in the escort guards to accompany the exiles along the highways.

The main legal acts that for the first time regulated in detail the activities of escort units were the “Decree on the Exiles” and the “Charter on the Stages” of 1822. These documents combined the legislative norms relating to the escort of prisoners, the conditions of their detention, distribution, and the activities of the military and provincial authorities for questions of reference.

The Charter and the Decree regulated the procedure for sending, established the documentation necessary for this and determined the legal status of the exiles. For the first time, special bodies were created for coordinating forces, means and management under the link - the Order on exiles in Tobolsk and the Expedition on exiles in provincial cities.

Throughout the entire period of existence of stage teams, the issue of recruiting personnel was especially acute. Most often, this was carried out by transferring to the guards of persons from the active army who were not able to serve due to illness, gross violation of the charters, etc. The legal basis was the emperor's decree of July 16, 1836, in accordance with which, students of military educational institutions with the rank of ensign from among those incapable of further study began to be transferred to stage teams.

Soon the situation showed the fallacy of this method of manning, but, unfortunately, this did not lead to significant changes. Moreover, discredited ranks from the regular army (16400 people out of 142750) began to be transferred to these units, which was the reason for the high level of crime in the units. General organization of the escort service of the Russian state in 1811 - 1864. // History of state and law. - 2005. - No. 4. P.23.

In the 60s of the nineteenth century, military reform took place in Russia. Among other measures, a military district command and control system was introduced. The reform also affected the internal guard. On August 6, 1864, the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard was abolished. In the military districts, brigades of local troops were formed, which included provincial battalions and district teams performing (along with other duties) the external protection of prisons, as well as teams designed to escort prisoners.

The escort teams were led by the escort unit (EPC) of the Main Headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and with the transfer of the prison system to the Ministry of Justice, the ECH was also transferred here.

January 27, 1867 the position of the Chief Inspector for the transfer of prisoners at the General Staff of the military department was approved with the rights of the head of the local troops of the district in relation to the escort teams.

On August 26, 1874, a new Regulation on the management of local troops was approved (announced by order of the military department N 251). The escort guards were formed as part of 567 escort teams, with the inclusion of the existing 63 teams in their composition. The teams had different numbers and were led, as a rule, by non-commissioned officers. The teams were named after their location - Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, etc.

Local troops were exempted from the duties of escorting prisoners. Such an organization of local military formations continued until 1886, when, by a decree of the State Council of Russia, the escort guards were created as an independent structural part of local troops to perform strictly defined tasks.

The functions of the new 567 escort teams, created by the imperial decree of January 26, 1886, were limited only to the transfer and protection of prisoners and exiles, places of detention, assistance to the prison authorities during searches and the elimination of riots in places of detention.

Here is what was recorded in the order of the military department of May 16, 1886 N 110: Nekrasov V.F. Decree op. P.45.

"To assign to the duties of the escort guards:

· escort of prisoners of all categories sent in stages along the routes of European Russia (with the exception of Finland and the Caucasus) and the Main Siberian Exile Route;

escort of prisoners within the limits of settlements to administrative and judicial institutions in cases provided for by law;

escort of prisoners of the civil department to external work and to public places;

· Assistance to the prison authorities in the production of surprise searches and suppression of riots in places of detention;

external guarding of prisons where it is deemed necessary...".

The escort guards were divided into escort teams led by officers, there were 65 of them, and others, led by non-commissioned officers - 466 teams. The escort teams were part of the local troops and were named after the place of deployment (Moscow, Kyiv, etc.).

In the escort teams, the institution of re-enlisted men was introduced (sergeant major, non-commissioned officer, senior clerk, medical assistant, etc.).

A separate brochure published a memo to the escort "Keep your eyes open!" It was sold in special stores for the ranks of the escort guards.

In this form, the escort guards with minor structural changes lasted until 1917. Its main functions were to escort mobilized into the army and foreign nationals, escort prisoners, prisoners, exiles and prisoners of war, and protect transported goods.

The continuity of the internal and escort guards is evidenced by the fact that on March 27, 1911, the 100th anniversary of the escort guards was solemnly celebrated in Russia. On this day, Emperor Nicholas II announced to all officer and class ranks "Highest Favor", and to the lower ranks - "Royal Thanks". In honor of the anniversary, a special badge was established.

Literature

1. Nekrasov V.F. Internal and escort guards of Russia 1811-1917. Documents and materials. - M., Exam Publishing House, 2002.

2. The general organization of the escort service of the Russian state in 1811 - 1864. // History of state and law. - 2005. - No. 4.

3. The general organization of the escort service of the Russian state in 1811 - 1864. // History of state and law. - 2005. - No. 4.

4. Bodies and troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia: a brief historical essay., M., 1996. p. 63-107.

5. The charter of the escort service is the basic law for the ranks of the escort guards of Russia. // History of state and law. - 2006. No. 4.

6. Shelestinsky D. G. Organizational and legal foundations for the formation and development of the Rossini escort guards: historical and legal research. - M., 2006.

The Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia are celebrating their 200th anniversary. Throughout their history, they have gone through many trials, stood guard over "peace and tranquility", protected the peace and tranquility of the country, and in wartime defended the Fatherland, fighting the enemy on the battlefield. The process of formation and development of the forces of law and order was complex, not always consistent and sometimes dramatic. We can assume that it was in line with general military construction, but at the same time had its own characteristics and patterns. Let's take a closer look at his milestones.

Alexander ZHABSKY

Your "metric", please!

On March 27, 1911, the centenary of local troops and escort guards was celebrated with special honors. The very fact of the anniversary celebrations testified to the recognition of the escort guard as the successor to the inner guard, created in 1811. The highest order issued on this occasion contains a direct indication of the calendar date of birth of the internal guard - March 27, 1811. On this day, Alexander I signed a decree "On the organization of disabled companies and teams and the composition of them as mobile disabled companies and employees of disabled teams."

However, neither in this nor in other decrees issued by him on January 16 and 17 of the same year, there was no mention of the internal guard as a new type of armed formation. The term "military internal guard" first appeared in a rescript addressed by Alexander I to the Minister of War M. B. Barclay de Tolly on the day the first decree was signed. This term becomes generally accepted after the approval by the emperor on June 3, 1811 of the "Regulations for the internal guard" - a document that for many years ahead determined the main directions of activity of the internal guard of Russia.

Nicholas II, in an order of 1911, noted the faithful and zealous service to the throne and the Fatherland of local troops and escort guards, “which is now expiring one hundred years from the time of their foundation.” So the calendar date of the creation of the internal guard was determined, which after 185 years began to be celebrated as the Day of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Being part of the power structures, the internal troops in the pre-revolutionary period of the history of Russia performed both the tasks of internal service and guard functions within the limits of the powers that our supreme power determined for them at different times.

They extinguished the flame, shaved their foreheads ...

But why were our internal troops born neither earlier nor later?

The century before last began alarmingly for Russia: a hundred years before that we "threatened the Swede", and now we ourselves were threatened by Napoleonic France. It was necessary to strengthen the internal security of the state, strengthen its borders, improve the training of recruits, and raise the level of the entire internal service. It was for this purpose that Alexander Pavlovich issued that "package" of three "target" decrees, which became the legal basis for the creation of the internal guard. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaign of Russian troops confirmed the timeliness of the measures taken.

The Inner Guard was a military force endowed with police functions. She was charged with guard duty, combating smuggling, pursuing and detaining criminals and runaway serfs, “pacifying disobedience and violence”, maintaining order in public places during holidays, extinguishing fires, combating the consequences of natural disasters, “escorting the treasury” and the abyss of others troublesome duties.

The guards played a special role in the recruitment. Only during the Patriotic War of 1812 and during the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, tens of thousands of soldiers passed through internal service in the order of recruitment sets. At the same time, rudimentary forms of guarding the rear of the army in the field arose. And the provincial battalions and district teams of the western part of Russia took an active part in defensive battles against the Napoleonic troops.

However, in the first half of the 19th century, the internal troops had to perform other important tasks. For example, when in November 1824 St. Petersburg was subjected to severe flooding, the internal guard units, led by their brave commander, General Komarovsky, entered the fight against the raging elements along with other forces.

And so came the reforms

The first came just five years later. In 1816, all units and subdivisions of the internal guard were reduced to a separate corps of the internal guard, the commander of which was appointed adjutant general (later infantry general and senator) Count Evgraf Fedotovich Komarovsky, a participant in the Italian and Swiss Suvorov campaigns, where he distinguished himself and received the first general rank.

And a year later, when the military department introduced a stage system for escorting prisoners, stage teams were created to escort them as part of the internal guard battalions: 1 officer, 2 non-commissioned officers, 1 drummer and 25 soldiers. At the same time, as part of the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard, gendarmerie units were formed in both capitals, provincial cities and ports, designed to solve military and police tasks by the method, as they would now say, "quick response." In St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw, gendarmerie divisions numbering 334 people were stationed, and gendarmerie teams of three dozen people each were based in 56 cities.

Two years later, disabled teams, which were created in the salt mines to carry out guard duty, were also added to the internal guard.

Refuge of the "tainted"

The middle of the 50s of the XIX century was the most difficult time in the life and work of the internal guard. She, like the army as a whole, needed a radical reform. The Crimean War showed its inability to fully fulfill the function of a regular army reserve, which was reduced only to the formation of militia squads.

The residual principle of manning the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard led to an increase in the number of officers and soldiers who had low business and moral qualities, transferred from regular troops to garrison battalions for personal indiscipline. In 1857 alone, 16,400 so-called defamed lower ranks entered the corps. The number of crimes increased in the units and divisions of the corps.

The command was forced to take decisive measures to eradicate them, up to the resettlement of more than 14 thousand lower ranks in Eastern Siberia. But measures to improve the corps turned out to be ineffective, since the principle of its acquisition did not change. Moreover, in the early 1960s, the idea of ​​abolishing the Separate Internal Guard Corps was hatched. It was justified by the inability of the state to maintain a large army and incur large expenses for military formations that did not have a military purpose.

In the twentieth century the escort guards

The next reorganization of the troops of the internal guard took place as part of the military reform, during which the recruiting principle of manning the armed forces was replaced by all-class military service. In August 1864, the Separate Corps of the Internal Guard was abolished, and its functions were assigned to local and reserve troops. But they could not fully perform the functions of the abolished Separate Corps of the Internal Guard ...

The military reform carried out by Alexander III also affected the internal guards. Instead, in May 1886, an escort guard was formed consisting of 567 escort teams, and local troops were relieved of the duties of escorting prisoners. In this form, she entered the 20th century, at the beginning of which there were two wars and three revolutions with their numerous victims. It is not surprising that the escort guards are becoming one of the most important executive bodies of the state's punitive system, and service in escort teams is becoming more and more significant and stressful. In this capacity, she celebrated her 100th birthday.

During the First World War, the escort guards, along with the duties for their intended purpose, were also engaged in replenishing the personnel of the units of the active army and transporting them, training non-commissioned officers, escorting prisoners of war, escorting foreign nationals and ammunition, and guarding transported goods.

Hello bandits with Basmachi ...

In 1917 the old army was disbanded. However, the escort guards did not undergo significant changes, continuing to perform their functions in a reformed form under the Soviet regime. But it soon became clear that its escort functions alone were not enough to establish the new system.

The process of creating full-fledged internal troops took the whole of 1918 and part of 1919. These troops were heterogeneous, their core was the armed formations of the Cheka for guard duty. Then they became known as the troops of the internal protection of the Republic (VOKhR). Subsequently, the troops of the VOHR-VNUS-VChK-OGPU-NKVD were repeatedly reorganized, but their tasks remained the same - protecting the population from any threat, including external ones. So it was in the Civil War, and later - during the incidents on Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin-Gol River, and in the Soviet-Finnish War.

One of the main tasks of the internal troops after the civil war was the fight against political banditry. Its centers arose in the North Caucasus, the Far East and Central Asia, where the Basmachi were fierce. Various methods were used to restore revolutionary order. For the speedy eradication of bandit raids and armed robberies, extrajudicial reprisals were allowed - up to the execution of bandits caught red-handed at the crime scene.

... and Bandera with the "forest brothers"

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, fighters and commanders of motorized rifle formations and units of internal troops bravely fought the enemy. Parts of the internal troops guarding objects on the railways entered into battles with the advancing German troops on the distant approaches to Leningrad - in the areas of Pskov, Narva, Luga, the city of Dno and others.

The soldiers of the units of the 21st division of the NKVD troops steadfastly defended the approaches to the city from the southeast - the ancient Russian fortress Oreshek, located on an island at the source of the Neva. They not only successfully repelled enemy attacks, but also, in cooperation with units of the Red Army, managed to capture a small foothold on the left bank of the Neva - the so-called Nevsky Piglet, which played an important role in the subsequent actions of our troops.

The internal troops ensured the transportation of more than 700 tons of cargo along the Road of Life and the evacuation of 30,000 Leningraders to the mainland. At the same time, throughout the war, as in the pre-war years, they carried out the protection of public order in the country, important defense enterprises and facilities, railway facilities, the rear of the army, carried out garrison service in cities liberated from the enemy. At the final stage of the war and after the Victory, they actively fought against the nationalist underground and its armed formations - the “forest brothers” in the Baltic States, Bandera in Ukraine ...

Courage by heart, not by state

Then new departmental reorganizations followed, but thousands of servicemen of the internal troops were still distinguished by their courage, courage, selflessness in performing the tasks of military service. Hundreds have been awarded state awards. And soldiers I. Ochichenko and Yu. Prokhorov, sergeants P. Domazin and I. Kolpakov, foreman G. Barmin, ensigns A. Bykov and A. Evdokimov for the dedication and courage shown in combat service, are forever enlisted in the lists of units where they served .

From December 1979 to February 1989, many servicemen of the internal troops took part in the hostilities in Afghanistan. Many soldiers then received high Soviet and Afghan awards. But it was not easy for them at home either. A quarter of a century ago, on April 26, 1986, there was a catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the military personnel of the internal troops participated in the elimination of its consequences literally from the first hours.

At the turn of the 1980s - 1990s, there was a sharp aggravation of the internal political situation in a number of regions of the former USSR, sharp conflicts arose on an interethnic basis. One of the forces that extinguished the flames of discord in hot spots was the internal troops. Here is what the Pravda newspaper wrote in June 1989 in connection with the bloody events in Fergana: “Many people of all nationalities met the internal troops here as their liberators from anarchy, rampant mass lawlessness. In the current situation, the internal troops have become the only guarantor of the life of the people.

After the collapse of the USSR, the peacekeeping operations of the internal troops were limited to the North Caucasus region. About ten thousand military personnel of the district troops went through the crucible of this test. Hundreds of them died and were injured. Over three thousand military personnel of the internal troops were awarded orders and medals, 65 of the most distinguished were awarded the high title of Hero of Russia, including five military personnel from our North-Western Regional Command of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the 21st century, the troops of this command - the "guardians of the white nights", as they poetically call themselves, entered into a well-coordinated and mobile military structure. They are fully equipped and have rich combat experience gained during the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. Our newspaper constantly writes about their present day. He, too, will once become history - but this is the history of tomorrow.