The Police Department of the Russian Empire () was the government agency responsible for the overall management and coordination of police forces in the Russian Empire, including the Okhrana branches and the Special Corps of Gendarmes,Перегудова З. Политический сыск России (1880–1917 гг.)Васильев А.Т.Охрана: русская секретная полицияО МВД 1880 – 1905 гг. between 1880 and the fall of the Empire in the Russian Revolution in 1917.
History
On November 14, 1819, the Department of the Executive Police () was created within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, following the dissolution of the Ministry of Police.Funds of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Russian State Historical Archive The task of the new department was the overall management and coordination of the various police forces in the Empire.
In 1826, the handling of political, religious and espionage cases was brought under the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery, with the Department of Executive Police remaining in control of regular police and crime-fighting.
The Police Department in its final incarnation was established on August 6, 1880 following the dissolution of both the Third Section and the Department of the Executive Police. The newly formed department was again placed under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 1880 til 1883 it was called Department of the State Police ("Департамент государственной полиции" ()). Under its jurisdiction and oversight were the Okhrana, all the police forces, including the detective branches, and the Fire departments.
After the February Revolution the Department was dissolved by the decree of the Russian provisional government on February 27, 1917, and following the October Revolution the Bolshevik government announced the establishment of the Militsiya, as the new police force.
Director The head of the department was The Director of the Police Department, who was appointed by the Minister of the Internal Affairs. +Directors of Police Department MinisterStart yearEnd yearIvan Velio18801881Vyacheslav von Plehve18811884Pyotr Durnovo 18841893Nikolai Petrov18931895Nikolai Saburov18951896Anton Dobrzhinsky18961897Sergei Zvolyansky18971902Aleksei Lopukhin19021905Sergei KovalenskyMarch 1905 June 1905Nikolai GarinJuly 1905November 1905Emmanuel Vuich19051906Maximilian Trusevich19061909Nil Zuev19091912Stepan Beletsky19121914Valentine Brun de Saint Hippolyte19141915Ruschu Mollov September 1915November 1915Konstantin Kafafov19151916Evgeny KlimovichFebruary 1916September 1916Aleksey Vasilyev 19161917
See also Ministry of Police of Imperial Russia Okhrana
Further reading Ronald Hingley, The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial, and Soviet Political Security Operations (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970). R. J. Stove, The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims (Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2003). Dominic Lieven (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume II: Imperial Russia, 1689–1917, Cambridge University Press (2006), .
References