Alexey A. Rubtsov The Trajectory of a Political Criminal Case in the Russian Empire: From Intelligence Reports to Statistical Tables (1870s)

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of record-keeping and administrative practices relating to political cases in the Russian Empire during the 1870s. The post-reform decades marked a crucial stage in the evolution of approaches to safeguarding state and public security in the Russian Empire. The study focuses on the complete trajectory of a political criminal case – from initial gendarmerie intelligence reports and the covert collection of operational information, through the procedures of formal preliminary investigation, to the systematization of the resulting data in departmental tables, nominal registers, and statistical summaries. Particular attention is devoted to the impact of the Judicial Reform of 1864 and the Regulations of 19 May 1871, which assigned gendarmerie officers the leading role in conducting preliminary investigations into crimes against the state. The article also analyzes the terminological ambiguity surrounding the concepts of «state crime» and «political crime,» which created significant practical difficulties both in the imposition of administrative penalties and in the classification of persons under investigation. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources from the collections of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery, and the Moscow Governorate Gendarmerie Administration, the study reconstructs the specific mechanisms by which information on «politically unreliable» individuals was collected, recorded, and summarized. Special attention is paid to the internal tensions between the Third Section, the Gendarme Corps, and the procuracy (Prosecutor’s Office), which reflected an intense struggle for control over the information gathered through political surveillance. The article concludes that, during the 1870s, investigations of political offenses evolved from procedures aimed at proving a specific crime into processes designed to establish the social «profile» of political radicals and the revolutionary milieu itself. This evolution in bureaucratic record-keeping became a key instrument in the construction and institutionalization of the category of «political unreliability.»

Keywords:

Political investigation; Third Section; Gendarme Corps; Ministry of Justice; Political crime; Criminal statistics

For сitation:

Alexey A. Rubtsov. The Trajectory of a Political Criminal Case in the Russian Empire: From Intelligence Reports to Statistical Tables (1870s). The Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. 59. P. 96–129. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2026.2026.59.004

Поступила в редакцию 05.03.2026. Поступила после рецензирования 06.04.2026. Принята к публикации 06.05.2026.

Alexey A. Rubtsov

C.Sc. (History), Associate Professor of the Cultural, State and Law History History of the Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University «LETI». St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.

e-mail: alex-rubtsov@inbox.ru

SPIN-code: 3271-8058

AuthorID: 948205

ORCID: 0000-0002-2211-7432

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