ACTIVITIES OF THE SPIES OF ATAMAN NECRASOV IN THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE (1708 - 1720s). Part 1

Abstract

The author investigates the reasons, forms and methods of sending spies from the territory of the Kuban, part of the Crimean Khanate. The spies "subversive" activities were most often directed by the ataman Ignat Nekrasov. For the first time in academic literature, the author systematically analyzes the tasks assigned to these Nekrasov‟s spies, as well as the conditions that both facilitated and hindered their implementation. Achieving the goal and objectives of this article, general investigative and special historical methods are used. The article is based on written historical sources of XVIII c. from several Russian federal and regional archives. The paper focuses on the geography of the "subversive" activities of such people, their composition and the peculiarities of training to perform tasks that are not always associated with the collection of intelligence information on the territory of Russia. In addition, the reactions of various categories of Russian citizen who communicated with the Ignat Nekrasov‟s spies are identified and studied. Numerous search activities and preventive measures of the Russian authorities aimed at suppressing / preventing the activities of the Nekrasov‟s spies, as well as at their capture and organization of interrogations are systematically analyzed.

Keywords

• don cossack host
• interrogations
• nekrasov cossacks
• crimean khanate
• borderland
• interrogative speeches
• russian state
• spies