The first security department, which was involved in the maintenance of order and tranquility in the city on the Neva, was opened in 1866 in connection with the increasing attempts on the sovereign Alexander II. This institution did not yet have independence, since the St. Petersburg mayor was engaged in its creation, and it opened under his chancellery. The second security department was not needed soon, it appeared in Moscow in 1880 under the auspices of the Moscow police chief. But this idea belonged to the Minister of the Interior M.T. Loris-Melikov. The third security department was opened in Warsaw in 1900 (at that time Poland was part of the Russian Empire).
Activities
In Russia, the revolutionary movement grew, because the field of activity was wide, and the work of the very first security departments was more than successful. Terrorism was gaining momentum, attacks on prominent figures of the country were becoming more frequent, and from time to time they were also successful. According to the provinces, the gendarme administrations worked weakly, and the authorities were increasingly thinking about how to improve the political investigation, to make it flexible and organized. In all major cities, undesirable performances of students and workers were constantly taking place, and peasant riots often happened.
Therefore, the number of so-called search points increased, in each big city its own security department was opened. The Russian Empire took a lot of them. In 1902, detective institutions began work in Yekaterinoslav, Vilno, Kiev, Kazan, Saratov, Odessa, Kharkov, Tiflis, Simferopol, Perm, and Nizhny Novgorod. It was they who carried out the political investigation, conducted external surveillance, led secret agents and recruited new agents. The Minister of the Interior V.K. Pleve created the Regulation on the heads of such departments, where the duties described above were specifically stated.
"Set of rules"
In the same 1902, a special “training manual” was circulated - the Code of Rules, from where the heads of the departments obtained information about the main tasks that each security department of the Russian Empire should carry out and brought this information to each subordinate. Networks of secret agents involved in political affairs were being built at a fast pace, file surveillance was also being established, and internal agents were being recruited. The security department in tsarist Russia selected employees according to many criteria.
The gendarmes were not easy. They were obliged to perfectly know everything about the history of the revolutionary movement, to memorize the names of the leaders of each opposition party to the government by heart, and to follow the illegal literature that the revolutionaries had established, no matter what. The head of the security department was responsible for all of the above. And the gendarmes were charged with educating their agents in this regard, so that all secret employees would develop a conscious attitude to the matter. The chiefs were directly subordinate to the Police Department, where they received all the general areas of activity, and even the department controlled the personnel of the security department of the gendarmes.
Agent Network
A network of new branches was opened on the initiative of a great enthusiast in his field, the head of the Moscow Security Department since 1896, S. V. Zubatov. However, in 1903 he retired, and in full his plans were never realized. Careerism that dominated this structure intensified rivalry among provincial gendarme managers.
Despite the fact that the department constantly called on the security departments to exchange information and mutual assistance, the matter hardly moved. Each boss in his city was a "king and god." That is precisely why conflict situations arose that did not go forward for the common cause. And yet, more than one security department was opened every year, the creation of the gendarmerie bodies expanded, and by the end of 1907, twenty-seven of them were functioning in the country.
New rules
In the same 1907, the current Regulation on the tsarist security department was significantly supplemented and approved by Stolypin. The document includes new paragraphs relating to relationships and the exchange of information within the structure.
Political and gendarmerie bodies, upon receipt of information related to the field of activity of security departments, had to transmit it for the development of cases, arrests, searches, seizures and other things that could not have been done without the head of the security department.
Security points
But information from the "secret police" had to come to the gendarme administration, so that there they could compare the circumstances obtained in the process of inquiries. However, twenty-seven branches were clearly not enough to control the literally boiling public, and therefore, already in 1907, universally small security posts began to open.
They were not created in the centers, but in those areas where the fighting mood among the population grew. In almost all cities, such points were established over the next two years. They were the first to open in Penza, Khabarovsk, Vladikavkaz, Gomel, Zhytomyr, Yekaterinodar, Poltava, Kostroma, Kursk, and then in dozens of cities.
Tasks
The district security departments faced numerous and sometimes difficult tasks. In addition to organizing internal agents, which was supposed to “develop” local party organizations, in addition to the search, countless officer meetings were held in the district, taking people away from the main business - direct search and surveillance. The number of papers they wrote was huge, as information was distributed everywhere.
Every higher movement of local revolutionaries was periodically thoroughly reported to the higher institutions of the search department, and it was also supposed (now according to official circulars) to fully help the same institutions in neighboring regions. The plus was that there were many times more intelligence materials, and this helped to conduct the investigation, since each investigator could use them. In necessary cases, even secret agents became known to a wider circle of people.
Success and difficulty
Initially, things improved with the opening of security points: one after another, party organizations, committees dispersed or were defeated, and arrests also followed one after another. Communists, socialists and liberals reached beyond the borders of the country, from where they continued to lead the movement, being already inaccessible. Such successes in the search work highly raised the prestige of the gendarmerie, and therefore the illusion of the complete defeat of all revolutionary organizations was created.
District security departments constantly and increasingly intervened in the actions of the police authorities, that is, a political investigation spoiled relations with employees of the gendarme departments. The department sent out circulars of joint efforts periodically, but that did not help. Gradually, the trickle of mutual information dried up. Moreover, the district security posts did not favor their higher provincial colleagues.
Liquidation
After 1909, work in the district offices weakened. Perhaps this also happened because there was a lull in the activities of illegal organizations. The head of police, the minister’s comrade V.F. Dzhunkovsky, decided that the existence of security departments was no longer appropriate. Some of them were combined with provincial administrations, some were simply abolished. The Police Department considered the justification for this to be a state benefit.
In 1913, a completely secret and urgent circular was issued, according to which the Baku, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Petrokov, Tiflis, Kherson, Yaroslavl, Don, Sevastopol security departments were liquidated. Thus, all but the three metropolitan ones, which opened very first, were closed. As an exception, until 1917, the East Siberian and Turkestan branches operated. But in the absence of a connecting network, the same structural links were of little use.
Petersburg Security Department
Touching upon the work of the St. Petersburg "secret police", one cannot help but touch upon the biography of the protagonist of this institution (in the picture). Correspondence of the Police Department has been preserved, and already in the records of 1902 you can find lines where the zeal and diligence of captain A.V. Gerasimov is extremely appreciated. By that time, he had already served three years in the gendarme department, was also checking the work of other departments, where he also helped colleagues in every way with advice and business.
First, Gerasimov was encouraged by the appointment to the Kharkov Security Department in 1902. He supervised so well that, out of all the rules, already in 1903 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and in 1905 he took the post of head of the St. Petersburg security department. He took up the matter, as always, actively, first of all putting things in order in his own institution. Smutyanov in St. Petersburg was greatly reduced when Gerasimov personally found underground workshops where explosive shells were made.
Further way
The revolutionaries also appreciated the new "snimord" at its true worth - several assassination attempts were being prepared for it. But Gerasimov was experienced and smart - it did not work out. In 1905, he again “without any rules” received the rank of colonel, in 1906 he received the Order of St. Vladimir, and in 1907 he became major general. A year later, the sovereign personally thanks him; in 1909, Gerasimov received another order. Career did not go, but flew up the stairs, skipping steps in dozens.
During this time, Gerasimov made the security department the largest and most effective in the country. He had no ambitions. Prior to his arrival, the head of the security department had never reported to the minister on his own. The first (and last) was Gerasimov. For four years, the institution under his leadership has changed radically and only for the better. Therefore, in 1909, Gerasimov was transferred with an increase - to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. General for special assignments - this is how his new position began to sound. He finished his service in 1914 with the rank of lieutenant general.
Petrograd Security Department
When the war with Germany began, all German ceased to sound beautiful to a Russian person. The city was therefore renamed - it was Petersburg, it became Petrograd. In 1915, Major General K.I. Globachev was appointed head of the security department in the capital, who subsequently wrote the most interesting memoirs.
The largest body of political investigation in the country at that time totaled more than six hundred employees. The structure included registration and central departments, a security team and the department itself. The latter was organized as follows: undercover and investigative units, external surveillance, archive and office. Through the efforts of Gerasimov, an unusual order reigned here.
Responsibilities
In the undercover unit, which was the base of the entire institution, all materials from undercover sources were concentrated. Experienced gendarme officers and officials worked here, and each had their own, assigned only to him part of the undercover coverage. For example, several people were engaged in the activities of the Bolsheviks, several more were engaged in the Mensheviks, others were socialist revolutionaries and people's socialists, some were engaged in social movements, and some were anarchists.
There was a special officer who observed the general labor movement. And each of them had their own secret employees and their own sources of information. Only he could see agents in the safe houses and only he protected them from failure. The information obtained was always carefully checked by cross-agents and external surveillance, and then developed: persons, addresses, appearances, communications, and the like were found out. As soon as the organization was examined enough, it was liquidated. Then the material of the searches was delivered to the undercover part of the security department, ordered and transferred to the investigators.