THE JOURNAL OF REGIONAL HISTORY V.7 No.3
“. . . Otherwise. . . Hastily Recruited Teams. . . Will Turn into Hooligans”: Proposal of Baron G.P. von Medem to Transform the Police Guard of the Russian Empire, introductory article, publication, commentary
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The publication reproduces a document from the fonds of the headquarters of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes. The document reveals the views of Lieutenant General Baron G.P. von Medem on the police guard and contains his proposal to reform the new government agency. In the first part of the document, G. von Medem describes the police guards of Vyatka Governorate, Kazan Governorate, and Perm Governorate, which he inspected in February–March 1906. The author of the report is very skeptical about the prospects for the development of the revolutionary movement in the Volga region and the Urals and considers the police guard organized on a new basis and the troops stationed in the governorate as a key measure to contain it. The second part of the document deals with the measures that must be taken to improve the situation of the guards, in the opinion of the gendarme. These proposals go far beyond simple instructions to the governors to eliminate the shortcomings identified during the inspections. The implementation of such measures would require a radical revision of the legislation on the police guard and its transfer from the control of the general police and the governor to the governorate gendarme department. In the published document, G. von Medem pays much attention to the proposals on changes in the organization of the police cavalry. However, the initiatives expressed in the report did not interest the Minister of Internal Affairs, who focused only on the specific issue of insufficient supply of the police guards with forage. The introductory part highlights the historiographical aspects of the topic, the life of Baron G. von Medem, the introduction of the police guard in the Russian Empire, the characteristics of the corpus of sources to which the published document belongs, and specific features of the reproduction of the text of the document.
Abbott, R.J. “Police Reform in Russia, 1858–1878.” PhD diss., Princeton University, 1971.
Beletskii, S.P., and P. Rutkevich. Istoricheskii ocherk obrazovaniya i razvitiya politseiskikh uchrezhdenii v Rossii [A historical sketch of the formation and development of police institutions in Russia]. St Petersburg: Tipografiya Ministerstva vnutrennikh del, 1913. (In Russian)
Fomichev, A.Yu. “Proekty reformy rossiiskoi politsii v kontse XIX – nachale XX veka” [Projects of reform of the Russian police in the late 19th – early 20th century]. PhD diss., Academy of Management of the Ministry of the MIA of Russia, 1999. (In Russian)
Karpeev, I.V. “Raport” [Report]. In Gosudarstvennost' Rossii. Slovar'-spravochnik [Statehood of Russia. A dictionary and reference book]. Bk. 6, 2 pts., compiled by N.I. Khimina, pt. 2, M–Ya, 220–21. Moscow: Nauka, 2009. (In Russian)
Kas'yanov, A.V. “K voprosu o reforme politsii Rossiiskoi imperii nakanune i v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny” [On the issue of police reform in the Russian Empire on the eve and during the First World War]. “Chernye dyry” v Rossiiskom Zakonodatel'stve, no. 1 (2014): 32–35. (In Russian)
Lavrenova, A.M. “Otdel'nyi korpus zhandarmov i rossiiskoe obshchestvo v 1880–1917 gg.” [Separate Corps of Gendarmes and Russian society in 1880–1917]. PhD diss., Russian State University for the Humanities, 2018. (In Russian)
Litsarev, M.Yu. “Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe razvitie provintsii v khode Pervoi russkoi revolyutsii 1905–1907 gg. (na primere Vyatskoi gubernii)” [Socio-political development of the province during the First Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 (on the example of Vyatka Governorate)]. PhD diss., Udmurt State University, 2017. (In Russian)
Masalimov, A.S. Reformy politsii Rossiiskoi imperii XIX–XX vekov: dostizheniya, proschety, vliyanie na razvitie gosudarstvennogo apparata [Reforms of the Russian Empire’s police in the 19th–20th centuries: achievements, miscalculations, influence on the development of the state apparatus]. Ufa: Ufimskii yuridicheskii institut MVD Rossii, 2011. (In Russian)
Mukhametshin, F.B., A.Kh. Sultanov, and S.Kh. Khakimov. Politsiya Bashkirii. Tri veka na sluzhbe Otechestvu [Police of Bashkiria. Three centuries in the service of the Fatherland]. Ufa: Ufimskii yuridicheskii institut MVD Rossii, 2017. (In Russian)
Nevskii, S.A., E.A. Sychev, and S.Yu. Mozhaev. “Uezdnaya politseiskaya strazha v Rossii v nachale XX veka” [Uyezd police guard in Russia in the early 20th century]. Istoricheskaya i sotsial'no-obrazovatel'naya mysl', no. 4 (2014): 342–46. (In Russian)
Orlovsky, D.T. The Limits of Reform: The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Imperial Russia,
1802–1881. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Petrov, A.V. “Obshchaya politsiya Urala i Zapadnoi Sibiri v nachale XX veka: problemy pravovogo regulirovaniya” [General police of the Urals and Western Siberia in the early 20th century: problems of legal regulation]. Nauchnyi vestnik Omskoi akademii MVD Rossii,
no. 2 (57) (2015): 67–70. (In Russian)
Ruud, Ch.A., “A.A. Lopukhin. Police Insubordination and the Rule of Law.” Russian History, vol. 20, no. 1/4 (1993): 147–62.
Sichinskii, E.P. Politsiya Yuzhnogo Urala v period krizisa samoderzhaviya [Police of the Southern Urals during the crisis of autocracy]. Moscow: Maior, 2005. (In Russian)
Thurston, R. “Police and People in Moscow, 1906–1914.” Russian Review, vol. 39, no. 3 (1980): 320–38.
Tot, Yu.V. “Reforma uezdnoi politsii v pravitel'stvennoi politike Rossii v XIX veke” [Reform of the uyezd police in the government policy of Russia in the 19th century]. Doctoral diss., St Petersburg State University, 2003. (In Russian)
Tot, Yu.V. “Senator F.P. Klyucharev i ego zapiska ‘O luchshem ustroistve grazhdanskogo v guberniyakh upravleniya’” [Senator F.P. Klyucharev and his memorandum ‘On the best civil administration in governorates’]. Rossiiskaya istoriya, no. 1 (2017): 80–90. (In Russian)
Weissman, N. “Regular Police in Tsarist Russia, 1900–1914.” Russian Review, vol. 44, no. 1 (1985): 45–68.
Beletskii, S.P., and P. Rutkevich. Istoricheskii ocherk obrazovaniya i razvitiya politseiskikh uchrezhdenii v Rossii [A historical sketch of the formation and development of police institutions in Russia]. St Petersburg: Tipografiya Ministerstva vnutrennikh del, 1913. (In Russian)
Fomichev, A.Yu. “Proekty reformy rossiiskoi politsii v kontse XIX – nachale XX veka” [Projects of reform of the Russian police in the late 19th – early 20th century]. PhD diss., Academy of Management of the Ministry of the MIA of Russia, 1999. (In Russian)
Karpeev, I.V. “Raport” [Report]. In Gosudarstvennost' Rossii. Slovar'-spravochnik [Statehood of Russia. A dictionary and reference book]. Bk. 6, 2 pts., compiled by N.I. Khimina, pt. 2, M–Ya, 220–21. Moscow: Nauka, 2009. (In Russian)
Kas'yanov, A.V. “K voprosu o reforme politsii Rossiiskoi imperii nakanune i v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny” [On the issue of police reform in the Russian Empire on the eve and during the First World War]. “Chernye dyry” v Rossiiskom Zakonodatel'stve, no. 1 (2014): 32–35. (In Russian)
Lavrenova, A.M. “Otdel'nyi korpus zhandarmov i rossiiskoe obshchestvo v 1880–1917 gg.” [Separate Corps of Gendarmes and Russian society in 1880–1917]. PhD diss., Russian State University for the Humanities, 2018. (In Russian)
Litsarev, M.Yu. “Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe razvitie provintsii v khode Pervoi russkoi revolyutsii 1905–1907 gg. (na primere Vyatskoi gubernii)” [Socio-political development of the province during the First Russian Revolution of 1905–1907 (on the example of Vyatka Governorate)]. PhD diss., Udmurt State University, 2017. (In Russian)
Masalimov, A.S. Reformy politsii Rossiiskoi imperii XIX–XX vekov: dostizheniya, proschety, vliyanie na razvitie gosudarstvennogo apparata [Reforms of the Russian Empire’s police in the 19th–20th centuries: achievements, miscalculations, influence on the development of the state apparatus]. Ufa: Ufimskii yuridicheskii institut MVD Rossii, 2011. (In Russian)
Mukhametshin, F.B., A.Kh. Sultanov, and S.Kh. Khakimov. Politsiya Bashkirii. Tri veka na sluzhbe Otechestvu [Police of Bashkiria. Three centuries in the service of the Fatherland]. Ufa: Ufimskii yuridicheskii institut MVD Rossii, 2017. (In Russian)
Nevskii, S.A., E.A. Sychev, and S.Yu. Mozhaev. “Uezdnaya politseiskaya strazha v Rossii v nachale XX veka” [Uyezd police guard in Russia in the early 20th century]. Istoricheskaya i sotsial'no-obrazovatel'naya mysl', no. 4 (2014): 342–46. (In Russian)
Orlovsky, D.T. The Limits of Reform: The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Imperial Russia,
1802–1881. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Petrov, A.V. “Obshchaya politsiya Urala i Zapadnoi Sibiri v nachale XX veka: problemy pravovogo regulirovaniya” [General police of the Urals and Western Siberia in the early 20th century: problems of legal regulation]. Nauchnyi vestnik Omskoi akademii MVD Rossii,
no. 2 (57) (2015): 67–70. (In Russian)
Ruud, Ch.A., “A.A. Lopukhin. Police Insubordination and the Rule of Law.” Russian History, vol. 20, no. 1/4 (1993): 147–62.
Sichinskii, E.P. Politsiya Yuzhnogo Urala v period krizisa samoderzhaviya [Police of the Southern Urals during the crisis of autocracy]. Moscow: Maior, 2005. (In Russian)
Thurston, R. “Police and People in Moscow, 1906–1914.” Russian Review, vol. 39, no. 3 (1980): 320–38.
Tot, Yu.V. “Reforma uezdnoi politsii v pravitel'stvennoi politike Rossii v XIX veke” [Reform of the uyezd police in the government policy of Russia in the 19th century]. Doctoral diss., St Petersburg State University, 2003. (In Russian)
Tot, Yu.V. “Senator F.P. Klyucharev i ego zapiska ‘O luchshem ustroistve grazhdanskogo v guberniyakh upravleniya’” [Senator F.P. Klyucharev and his memorandum ‘On the best civil administration in governorates’]. Rossiiskaya istoriya, no. 1 (2017): 80–90. (In Russian)
Weissman, N. “Regular Police in Tsarist Russia, 1900–1914.” Russian Review, vol. 44, no. 1 (1985): 45–68.
Keywords:
governorate police guard inspector, professional training, Separate Corps of Gendarmes, uyezd police department, governorate gendarme department, forage, governor
For citation:
Ryazanov, S.M. “‘. . . Otherwise. . . Hastily Recruited Teams. . . Will Turn into Hooligans’: Proposal of Baron G.P. von Medem to Transform the Police Guard of the Russian Empire, introductory article, publication, commentary.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 7, no. 3 (2023): 1013–42, https://doi.org/10.23859/2587-8344-2023-7-3-7

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