Policemen of the Tsar

Local Police in an Age of Upheaval
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-963-386-575-0
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 496 g

Reihe: Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia - CEU Press

Founded by Peter the Great in 1718, Russia’s police were key instruments of tsarist power. In the reign of Alexander II (1855-1881), local police forces took on new importance. The liberation of 23 million serfs from landlord control, growing fear of crime, and the terrorist violence of the closing years challenged law enforcement with new tasks that made worse what was already a staggering burden. (“I am obliged to inform Your Imperial Highness that the police often fail to carry out their assignments and, when they do execute them, they do so poorly because of their moral corruption…”) This book describes the regime’s decades-long struggle to reform and strengthen the police. The author reviews the local police’s role and performance in the mid-nineteenth century and the implications of the largely unsuccessful effort to transform them. From a longer-term perspective, the study considers how the police’s systemic weaknesses undermined tsarist rule, impeded a range of liberalizing reforms, perpetuated reliance on the military to maintain law and order, and gave rise to vigilante justice.

While its primary focus is on European Russia, the analysis also covers much of the imperial periphery, discussing the police systems in the Baltic Provinces, Congress Poland, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Abbott, Robert J

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface, Glossary of Russian Police Terms, Chapter 1: The Local Police at Mid-Century, Chapter 2: The Rural Police, Chapter 3: Metropolitan and Municipal Police, Chapter 4: From Stalemate to Forced Resolution, Chapter 5: A Police Balance Sheet, Chapter 6: Consequences and Implications, Appendix: Police in the Borderlands, Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Abbott has a PhD from Princeton University. He has worked as a university instructor, intelligence analyst, and consultant to US intelligence and law enforcement agencies.