The Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society, 1880-1917

THE TSARIST SECRET POLICE IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY, 1880-1917

Fredric S. Zuckerman Senior Lecturer in History University of Adelaide

in association with the SCHOOL OF SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES & UNIVERSITY OF LONDON as

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

This book is published in Macmillan's Studies in Russia and East Europe series Chairman of the Editoral Board: Professor Michael Branch

ISBN 0-333-63396-2

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9876 54321 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd Chippenham, Wiltshire For Lorre, Michael and Nicola

Contents

List of Tables ix Acknowledgements xi A Note on Transliteration and Dates xiii A Note on Police Terminology xiv Abbreviations and Glossary xv

PART I SETTING THE STAGE

A Comparative Introduction 3 1 Law and the Repression of Political Crime in Russia, 1826-1902 10 2 The Development of Modern Political Policing Institutions 19 in Russia, 1800-1902

PART II DETECTIVES, SECRET AGENTS AND POLICE CHIEFS

3 Fontanka's Foot Soldiers: The Professional Lives of Russia's 31 Political Police Detectives 4 Sekretnye Sotrudniki: The Lives of Russia's Undercover Agents 39 5 Making a Career: The Evolution of Professionalism 58 within Fontanka

PART III THE FOUNDATIONS OF A MODERN POLICE STATE? THE POLITICAL POLICE AND THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE, 1902-1904

6 Spinning the Web: Plehve and the Expansion of the Political 83 Police Network 7 Time of Experiment, Time of Repression, 1902-1904 100

PART IV REVOLUTION, COUNTER-REVOLUTION AND COLLAPSE: THE TSARIST POLITICAL POLICE AND RUSSIAN SOCIETY, 1904-1917

8 P.D. Sviatopolk-Mirskii and A.A. Lopukhin: The Political 123 Police and Mirskii's 'Spring'

vn viii Contents 9 The Political Police and the 1905 Revolution, I: The Descent into 143 Chaos, January-November 10 The Political Police and the 1905 Revolution, II: 165 Durnovo, Rachkovskii and Internal Warfare 11 Stolypin and the Russian Political Police, 1906-1911 182 12 S.P. Beletskii and V.F. Dzhunkovskii and the Forces of Modernity 202 within Russian Society 13 Illusion and Reality: Into the Abyss, 1915-1917 225 Epilogue 245 Notes and References 253 Bibliography 310 Key to the drawing of the chain-of-command of the 338 Russian Political Police Index 339 List of Tables

1.1 Number of Political Cases Compiled by the Ministry of Justice and Number of Persons Included in those Cases, 1894-1903 16 1.2 Number of Political Criminals Sentenced by Administrative Authority, 1883-1900 17 4.1 Schleifman' s Distribution of Sotrudniki among Revolutionary Parties, 1902-1914 44 4.2 Distribution of the Moscow 00's Sotrudniki Operating Among Revolutionary, Opposition and Suspicious Groups, beginning of 1916 44 4.3 Yearly Expenditure by OOs and Gendarme Directorates (By City or Region) on Their Undercover Operations, 1914 45 5.1 Position on the Table of Ranks held by Civilian Managers of Political Police Affairs, 1917 60 5.2 Police-Related Careers of our Civilian Sample: Number of Police Postings Occupied by Senior Police Bureaucrats and the Highest Post Attained within the Police Bureaucracy 61 5.3 Number of Senior Civilian Police Officials with Multiple Job Experience within the Police Bureaucracy, as Compared to Total Number of Such Officials Encompassed in this Survey 62 5.4 Careers of Senior Police Chinovniki: the Last Position they held before Entering Fontanka 62 5.5 Highest Postings Held Within Fontanka by Our Cohort of Twenty-Nine Gendarme Officers Denoting Their Position on the Table of Ranks, 1917 63 5.6 Educational Attainments of Twenty-Five Gendarme Officers Serving in the Higher Ranks of the Political Police 65 5.7 Previous Military Experience of Twenty-Five Gendarme Officers Serving in the Higher Ranks of the Political Police 65 5.8 Total Number of Senior Positions within Fontanka held by Military Officers, 1900-1917 79 7.1 Number of State Criminal Cases (excluding those under military justice) compiled by the Ministry of Justice, 1901-1903 118 9.1 Workers on Strike, February-September 1905 155 9.2 Peasant Disorders, January-September 1905 155 10.1 Largest Urban Soviets 168 11.1 SR Terrorist Acts, 1902-1911 188 11.2 Victims of Terrorism, 1905-1 May 1909 189

IX x List of Tables 12.1 Number of New Publications Versus Number of those Ceasing Publication, 1905-1913 205 12.2 Number of Trade Unions in Russia, 1905-1913 207 12.3 The Strike Movement, 1910-1912, from the Data of the Factory Inspectorate 214 12.4 Number of Journals of the Council of Ministers having to do with the Struggle against the Revolutionary Movement, 1906-13 218 12.5 Number of Strikers in St. Petersburg, July 1914, according to St Petersburg OO Statistics 220 13.1 The Strike Movement in Russia, 1916-1917 237 Acknowledgements

This book was in the works for a long time. It began as a PhD dissertation under the guidance of Professor William L. Blackwell at New York University. Professor Blackwell's patience and suggestions especially through the early stages of prep• aration helped to make the dissertation better than it would have otherwise been. Professor Jeremiah Schneiderman read the completed dissertation with the greatest care. His numerous and welcome criticisms helped me to see with greater clarity the role of the political police under the last two tsars within the panorama of Russian political and social life. Professor Schneiderman also graciously loaned me the manuscript of his subsequently published book, Sergei Zubatov and Revolutionary Marxism: The Struggle for the Working Class in Russia. I owe him a deep personal and intellectual debt. My former colleague Dr Stephen Large, now of Wolfson College, Cambridge University read an early draft of the manuscript and offered several suggestions for its improvement. Mr Hugh Stretton read the manuscript in its penultimate state, offering invaluable advice and along with Professor Trevor Wilson sup• plied much needed encouragement during the homestretch. I am indebted to many libraries and archives as well. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace which was my home away from home for almost three years is certainly one of the most congenial libraries in the United States. Its librar• ians, archivists and staffers made my stay there both rewarding and pleasant. Of the librarians, Miss Hilja Kukk because of her help and friendship deserves special mention. In the Hoover Archives where I spent over two years digging through the wealth of primary documentation necessary for this work I made good friends who went out of their way to locate hard-to-find material for me. Some of the people are no longer at the Hoover, others are still there: Dr Franz Lassner, the former Director of Archives; Mr Charles Palm, the current Director; Mr Ronald Bulatoff, Archivist; Mrs Krone Kernke, former Archivist. At Columbia University's Boris Bakhmeteff Archive I intially received considerable help from Mr Lev Magorevsky and more recently and especially from the present Curator of the Bakhmeteff Archive, Ms Ellen Scaruffi and her staff. The Barr-Smith Library of the University of Adelaide purchased many obscure books and manuscripts for me after they were located with skill and patience by Subject Librarian Mrs Patricia Scott and by Mrs Valerie Balagengadaran and Mrs Adrienne Jago of the Technical Services branch of the Library. Mrs Marie Robinson, Resources Librarian, always seemed to locate sufficient funds for the purchase of the material I requested. I would also like to thank the staffs of the New York Public Library and the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University which were my hosts at various times while I researched this book.

XI Xll Acknowledgements

The Australia Research Council funded a vital summer's research in the United States. This book has gone through many drafts, passing through the age of the elec• tric typewriter to the desk top computer in the process. Mrs Anita Taylor, Ms Bev Arnold and Ms Marilyn Dinnis typed successive drafts of the manuscript with the utmost care while putting up with an author who always wanted to make just one more change in wording. I owe a special debt to Ms Dinnis whose friend• ship and kind words of support were always a welcome tonic. Mrs Marion Pearce patiently allowed the typing and retyping of my manuscript to upset the History office's routine. Ms Penelope Curtin gave the book a thorough editing just when it was required. From its inception to its completion this work took more years than I care to remember. During these years my family's moral and financial contributions are too great to enumerate. My parents Sidney and Dorothy Bleiberg and my in-laws Louis and Judith Shapiro have contributed more to this book than they can ever imagine. About my wife, well, I could write pages. Lorre lived the book with me from the beginning. As an editor and early typist she read the drafts of the manu• script, making one useful suggestion after another. Her understanding and friend• ship helped me to overcome the discouragement and frustration which often plague authors who take too long to write their books.

Adelaide, South Australia FREDRIC S. ZUCKERMAN

I would like to thank the following authors, editors and publishers for granting me permission to publish several tables or parts of tables displayed in this book: G.A. Arutiunov and his publisher Nauka for table 7 'Stachechnoe dvizhenie v 1910-1912 gg.' (herein 12.3) and table 9 'Kolichestvo stachechnikov v Peterburge v liule 1914 g.' (herein 12.5) from his book Rabochee dvizhenie v Rossii period novogo revoliutsionnogo pod"ema 1910-1914 gg.\ ('Nauka', 1975). I.P. Leiberov for Table 6 'Stachechnoe dvizhenie v Rossii (1916-1917 gg.)' (herein 13.1) taken from his book Na shturm samoderzhaviia ('Mysl", 1979) ; K.F. Shatsillo for allowing me to reprint tables from his article (co-authored by B.I. Grekov and V.V Shelokhaev) 'Evolutsiia politicheskoi struktury Rossii v kontse XIX veka (1895-1913)' in Istoriia SSSR no. 5 (September/October 1988); and from Indiana University Press and St Martin's Press to reprint Table 3.1 (herein 9.1) from John Bushnell, Mutiny amid Repression: Russian Soldiers in the Revolution of 1905-1906 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985) and Table 6.1 (herein 11.1) from Maureen Perrie, 'Political and Economic Terror in the Tactics of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party before 1914', in Social Protest, Violence and Terror in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe edited by Wolfgang Mommsen and Gerhard Herschfeld (New York: St Martin's Press, 1982). Every effort has been made to contact all the copyright-holders but if any have been inadvertently omitted the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the earliest opportunity. A Note on Transliteration and Dates

I have used a modified version of the Library of Congress transliteration system. The Julian Calender used by Tsarist Russia was behind the western or Gregorian Calender by twelve days in the nineteenth century and thirteen days in the twentieth century. For domestic Russian history this is of no consequence. Tsarist police documents originating in western Europe contain both dates.

xm A Note on Police Terminology

The common terms used by contemporaries as well as subsequent historians to identify the Tsarist political police are Okhrana or Okhranka. Though imposing in both sound and appearance they are really meaningless and only further obscure an already confused and complexly intertwined group of organisations and bureaus. In order to help unravel the police bureaucracy I have avoided using these labels and replaced them with the proper names of the institutions which they encompassed. A somewhat finer distinction must be drawn to the reader's attention. This is the usage of the terms 'Special Section', 'Department of Police' and its nick• name, 'Fontanka' in the text. The Special Section, as we shall see, sat atop the political police organisational pyramid and was located in Department of Police Headquarters in St Petersburg. When I use the term 'Special Section' it refers to orders, intelligence data, circulars and so on which emanated specifically from this bureau. When I refer to an opinion, circular, order and the like as having originated in the 'Department of Police' or 'Fontanka' it signifies information appearing under the general imprimatur of the Department of Police, though it was in fact issued by any one of the nine secretariats and in the case of the Weekly Intelligence Surveys, the Special Section. The reason for this awkward explanation should, I hope, become manifestly clear as the reader moves through the book. Another point worth noting. The word agentura as in Zagranichnaia agentura has as its English equivalent 'secret service'. I found the translation of the above term, literally Foreign Secret Service, too cumbersome and not entirely accurate. I decided, therefore, to resort to some literary licence by adopting the word agentura into the English language, making the Russian political police abroad the 'Foreign Agentura'.

xiv Abbreviations and Glossary

AHR American Historical Review ASEER American Slavic and East European Review ARR Arkhiv Russkoi Revoliutsii {Archive of the Russian Revolution) BE Broghaus and Efron, Entsiklopedicheskii Slovar' (Encyclopaedia) BO Boevaia Organizatsiia (Battle Organization). The agency of Central terror for the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Cheka Chrezychainaia Komissiia (Extraordinary Commission) chinovnik civil servant CSS Canadian Slavic Studies druzhiny Literally, detachments. In our case groups of armed men committed to acts of terrorism. dvizhenie revoliutsionnoe The revolutionary movement. Extraordinary Commission Depositions by former tsarist officials before the Extraordinary Commission investigating the illegal activities of former ministers and others. MSS Nikolaevsky Collection FAAr The Archive of the Foreign Agentura, located at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. filer detective Fontanka The nickname for the Department of Police which was located at 16 Fontanka Quai in St Petersburg. glasnost' openness GM Golos Minuvshago {Voice of the Past) gradonachaVnik mayor (closest but inexact equivalent) HJ Historical Journal IR Istoriko - Revoliutsionnyi Sbornik {Historical-Revolutionary Collection) IV Istoricheskii Vestnik {Historical Herald) IZ Istoricheskie Zapiski {Historical Notes)

xv XVI Abbreviations and Glossary

JCH Journal of Contemporary History JG Jahrbucherfur Geschichte Osteuropas Kadets Constitutional Democrats KaS Katorga i ssylka (Penal Servitude and Exile) KGB Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (Committee of State Security) KL Krasnaia Letopis/(Red Chronicle) klichka code name KA Krasnyi Arkhiv {Red Archive) KS Krizis samoderzhaviia v Rossii, 1895-1917 (The Crisis of the Autocracy in Russia, 1895-1917) MVD Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del (Ministry of Internal Affairs) NYPL MVD, Departament politsii, Sbornik sekretnykh Tsirkuliarov obrashchennykh k NachaVnikam gubernskikh zhandarmskikh upravlenii, Gubernatoram i pr. v techenie 1902-1907. (MVD, Department of Police, Secret Collection of Circulars addressed to the Chief of the provincial gendarme directorates, the Governors and others between 1902-1907). Circulars of the Nizhni Novgorod Gendarme Directorate. New York Public Library. obshchestvennoe dvizhenie The social movement. The politically active element of Russian society. ordena decorations. OO Okhrannoe Otdelenie (Security Division). These political police bureaus were located in major cities and centres of revolutionary activity. Osobyi Otdel The Special Section. The headquarters of the political police system, controlling all operations at home and abroad. proizvol arbitrariness Protokol no. 8 (22 January 1909) Procurator's pre-trial statements, Protokol no. 21 (7 February 1909) the A.A. Lopukhin treason case, Protokol no. 22 (18 January 1909) in Russian. MSS Nikolaevsky Protokol no. 34 (2 March 1909) Collection PTsR Padenie Tsarskogo Rezhima (The Collapse of the Tsarist Regime) Abbreviations and Glossary xvn RH Russian History RR Russian Review RSDWP Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party samoderzhavie autocracy sanovnik A very senior official, SDs social democrats SEER The Slavonic and East European Review sekretnyi sotrudnik undercover agent SIR Slavic Review sluzhashchii office worker. A term to identify white collar workers in post-revolutionary Russia. Soiuz Russkogo Naroda Union of the Russian People SR Sotsial-revoliutsioner' (Social- revolutionary) SRs socialist-revolutionaries VE Vestnik Evropy (European Herald) VeCheka Vserossiskaia Chrezychainaia Komissiia po bor^be s Kontrrevoliutsiei, Spekuliatsiei, Sabotazham i Prestupleniiam i po Dolzhnosti (All Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combatting Counter-Revolution, Speculation, Sabotage, and Misconduct in Office) VI Voprosy Istorii (Issues of History) Zagranichnaia agentura Foreign Agentura. Also known as the Paris Office. It was the headquarters of Tsardom's political police abroad, zakonnost' legality Zhandarmskie upravlenie Gendarme Directorate. Political police bureaus located throughout Russia. Played a resentful second fiddle to the more recently constituted Security Divisions.