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Russia in the 19th Century: Why Gendarmes were a special caste in Russia
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.[HISTRF] On April 28, 1827, Emperor Nicholas I signed a decree on the creation of the Gendarme Corps, it fell to them to ensure the state security of Russia over the next 90 years. “And you, blue uniforms, and you, the people devoted to them” - these Lermontov words from the poem, which is still included in the school curriculum, are remembered by the vast majority of Russians. He remembers and recklessly believes, imagining the Russian gendarmes as stranglers of freedom and soulless torturers, which is completely untrue. Corps of gendarmes, the position of which Emperor Nicholas Isigned on April 28 (O.S.), 1827, was far from being as numerous and omniscient as one might imagine, if one is to believe the ideological clichés of half a century ago. Another thing - its effectiveness was great enough to create such a feeling. But something else is more important: as long as the reigning emperors had enough political will to resist anti-state societies, the Gendarme Corps had the strength, energy and ability to fulfill this will. "High Police" by Count Benckendorff The document that laid the foundation for the existence of one of the longest-lived state formations - the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, was called very prosaically: "On the Establishment of Five Districts of the Gendarmerie Corps." It was this decree that was signed by Nicholas I on April 28, 1827, and the history of the gendarmerie corps begins with it. The five districts of the corps referred to in the decree were distributed as follows: the first district included St. Petersburg and all the northwestern provinces of Russia, the second - Moscow and most of the central provinces, the third - Vitebsk province and all of Belarus, the fourth - the Kiev province and all of Ukraine, and the fifth - the rest of Russia, together with Siberia and the Caucasus. It should not be surprising that the districts were so unevenly distributed. The reason for the creation of the Corps of Gendarmes, which in name was a purely military organization, but in fact a political police, was the Decembrist uprising in 1825 . Until that time, the concept of "gendarme" in Russia existed in its direct meaning - the military police, whose functions were limited to overseeing the observance of order in the army in wartime and peacetime. But after a speech on Senate Square and the existence of secret societies, the basis of which were officers, was revealed, Emperor Nicholas I realized that officers needed not just control, but political control. And it was hard to find a better tool than gendarmes for this. The chronology of events looked like this. On June 25 (O.S.), 1826, the position of chief of the gendarmes was established, to which Lieutenant General Alexander Benkendorf , the man who led the investigation into the case of the Decembrists, was appointed. Actually, he owned the idea of creating a special, higher police under the leadership of an inspector of the gendarme corps, and Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich rightly judged that the author should put his ideas into practice. But Alexander Benckendorff did not get off with the post of chief of the gendarmes alone: he also had to become the head of the III department of his own imperial majesty's chancellery, which quickly became famous. It was the third branch that became one of the two governing bodies in relation to the Gendarme Corps. It determined all the political and investigative activities of the gendarmes, while military and economic issues remained under the jurisdiction of the War Ministry - so to speak, from the old memory. Gendarme - work for the elite If we return to the prevailing idea of the gendarmes as narrow-minded, poorly educated and despised in society, we will have to admit that such a view is completely untrue. Perhaps it is fair, and even then partly, only the opinion that their fellow gendarmes really did not cause much sympathy among army officers. And this is easily explained: the first and for several decades the main object of observation for the Corps of Gendarmes was just the military. This was partly due to the fact that it was the military who were the organizers of the first anti-state conspiracy in the history of the Russian Empire, and partly to the fact that not everyone could get into the number of officers of the gendarmerie corps, and these few lucky ones quickly became untrue fame of careerists and experts in undercover intrigues. The latter, if it was true, was only in relation to the gendarmes of the later time, when after 1880 they were transferred from subordination to the Third Division to subordination to the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. As contemporaries testify, then it was possible to get into the number of candidates for filling vacancies in the Separate Corps of Gendarmes (such a name became official since 1836) only through patronage, and at a very high level. And at first, it was enough for the candidate to meet a not too wide set of fairly simple conditions. It must be admitted that there were not too many such people in the Russian army. After all, the applicant for the blue uniform had to be at least 25 years old, to graduate from the cadet or military school in the first category, serve in the army or guards (there were also guards gendarmerie units) for at least six years and not have debts. The last point may seem strange, but in reality it was completely logical: the debtor was dependent on who he owed money to, and this could significantly affect his impartiality. Was this enough to become a gendarme? No! Because the whole set of requirements determined only the possibility of applying for a place in the gendarmerie corps. After the officer filed the corresponding petition, he was carefully checked by future colleagues for possible "defamatory connections" and unreliability. Then, if everything went well, the applicant was seconded to the headquarters of the gendarme district for a period of two to four months, so that his skills and abilities, level of education and moral qualities could be assessed there. And only after the officer received a positive review following the results of this internship, he was ... allowed to test! These examinations were held at the headquarters of the Gendarme Corps, and if the applicant successfully passed them, he took one more step towards the desired goal: he was included in the list of candidates. Those on this list, as new vacancies appeared, were called to St. Petersburg, where they were to undergo four-month special courses. The list of subjects that were taught to the students of these courses is quite remarkable. It included not only jurisprudence, Russian history, geography and political economy, but also, for example, literature, as well as the subject "History of the Great French Revolution" (for obvious reasons). After studying, the candidates passed the final exams and received places in direct proportion to how well they passed the exams. And already in the new place they started practical training under the guidance of an experienced colleague, who was assigned to the newcomer by order and shared with him the responsibility for the successful development of new knowledge. By the way, not all officers who have passed this multi-stage sieve, Loyalty Test Is it any wonder that with such a cruel selection, the number of officers who entered the service in the Separate Corps of Gendarmes was very small. For example, according to the data for 1871, cited by the historian Igor Zimin, out of 142 who applied for transfer to the corps, only 21 people were selected, of which only six were eventually allowed to take courses. However, the very number of gendarmerie officers was very small: at the beginning of the history of the Gendarmes Corps, it was about 350 people, by 1873 it reached 486 generals and officers, and in 1880, when the corps was reformed, it increased slightly - up to 521 generals and officers. But there were an order of magnitude more non-commissioned officers and lower ranks in the Gendarme Corps - about 6,000-7,000 people. And it was they who were much more visible than their commanders, because the junior officers of the gendarmerie corps were assigned duties, for example, to escort the arrested, to ensure order in places, as they would say today, of a mass congestion of people, and as the transport network developed, and on the railway. And if there were courses for officers that opened the way for them to the corps, then non-commissioned officers and lower ranks were given the opportunity to improve their educational level, having already entered the service. For those who wished, the Corps Preparatory School was opened in St. Petersburg, the main task of which was to prepare the gendarmes for the "conscious use of the duties of the service in the observation unit." The gradual development of the revolutionary movement in Russia and the expansion of its base by involving in anti-government activities no longer representatives of the nobility from among the officers, but raznochintsy and even workers, significantly expanded the field of activity of the gendarmes. The corps, created to control the social stratum that was close to the gendarmerie officers, was forced to urgently shift the focus of attention to social groups that had not previously fallen into the sphere of its interests. In addition, the socio-political predilections of the reigning persons also had a significant impact on the success of gendarmerie activities. For example, during the time of the more liberal Emperor Alexander II, the efficiency of the Gendarme Corps decreased, but when his son Alexander III came to power , it increased significantly. But no matter what winds blew on the political Olympus, the gendarme officers themselves, and many non-commissioned officers and even lower ranks, performed their duties with all due care, demonstrating genuine devotion to Russia and its interests. Moreover, they did this, extremely rarely transgressing the brink of the law: for such a gendarme, a serious punishment threatened, and from their own colleagues, since a special 3rd branch of the corps was engaged in investigating gendarmerie crimes. Is it any wonder that even implacable revolutionaries were forced to pay tribute to their opponents. Historian Vladimir Goryainov gives the following example: in the collection of articles “Technology of the Bolshevik underground”, among the authors of which were such legendary underground workers as Avel Yenukidze and Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, However, even the Separate Corps of Gendarmes failed to cope with the truly massive revolutionary movement that swept Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The forces were too unequal, the task was too great. And in the end, despite all the efforts of the gendarme corps, the October Revolution broke out . But here's what's interesting: from among the generals and officers of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, there was not a single one who would agree to cooperate with the new government, and even among the non-commissioned officers and lower ranks there were only a few of them. Posted by: badanov 2023-04-29 |
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