Secret Agency of the Provincial Gendarmerie at the Beginning of the 20th Century (on the Materials of the Vologda Provincial Gendarme Department)

Abstract

The effective performance of the ‘domestic intelligence’ in Tsarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was impossible without the use of secret agents as the main source of information about the opponents of the regime. This was implemented both at the managerial level of the Police Department, and at that of the authorities that conducted the investigative work locally – the provincial gendarme departments (PGD). The article discusses the activities of the Vologda PGD in creating a network of informants in the ranks of revolutionary groups and among the exiled on the territory of the province and evaluates the quantitative and qualitative composition of the said network. This resulted in almost total suppression of any attempts of activity among the ranks of the opponents of tsarism. The final part of the article is devoted to the prosecution of the former secret agent of the VPGD N.A. Pechkovskii during the years of the Soviet power.

Keywords

• tsarist secret police
• police department
• political investigation
• vologda provincial gendarme directorate
• secret agents