Viewpoints of Russian Gendarmerie Staff Officers on the Structure of Local Management Apparatus in Siberia during Pre-Reform Period

Abstract

The author examines the view of gendarmerie officers on the apparatus of officials in Siberia in the 30s - 50s of the XIX century. Through the course of their study, the author formed a list of officials in order to determine about whom gendarmes reported in their reports, sources were also identified of where gendarmes the received information about officials, and the transformation of the views of gendarmerie officers on the imperial administration in Siberia was revealed through source material. The main sources for the research were legislative acts of the imperial government, orders on the Gendarmes Corps, annual reports, reports, various reports of gendarmes stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Some of these sources were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Though the course of research, a historical and systematic method was used, a method which allowed them to explore both the subject and the object of research as a set of interrelated elements. As a result of the research conducted, the author came to the following conclusion: that gendarmerie officers innately considered Siberia an integral part of the Russian Empire. In their re-ports, gendarmerie officials reported on virtually all other officials, despite their official position. In their reports, they also highlighted a number of features of the Siberian administration: the lack of effective supervision of their activities, that local officials were not afraid to commit any official crimes, excessive corruption of the bureaucracy, the spread of favoritism, etc. However, over time, the severity of criticism of the Siberian bureaucracy decreased in gendarmerie reports, as the gen-darmes themselves gradually entered officialdom. Eventually, the gendarmerie department in turn became the main tool of political investigation of the state government.

Keywords

• staff officers
• gendarmerie supervision
• national suburbs
• bureaucracy
• abuses