On November 10, Russia celebrates Police Day. Until recently, when the militia was renamed to police, this significant date was called much more commonly - Police Day. After all, on November 10, 1917, exactly 98 years ago, the decree “On the Workers’ Militia” was adopted, which marked the beginning of the law enforcement system of Soviet Russia and the law enforcement agencies formed on its basis Soviet Union and the Russian Federation.
From February to October
Although the decree “On the Workers' Militia” was adopted after the October Revolution, the prehistory of the creation of the police goes back to the period of the February Revolution of 1917. In the process of post-revolutionary transformations, the law enforcement system that existed before the February Revolution in Russian Empire, has undergone dramatic changes. In accordance with the “Declaration of the Provisional Government on its composition and tasks” dated March 3, 1917, a decision was made to replace the police with the people's militia. It was assumed that the people's militia would be subordinate to local governments, and leadership positions would become elected. However, despite the fact that the commanding staff in the police was supposed to be elected, the police itself remained a regular unit with regular positions. Thus, in fact, the renaming of the police into militia was not associated with a fundamental change in the structure of the formation of a law enforcement agency. The police did not " people's militia law and order”, in which all interested or specially delegated citizens could participate. It remained a professional body performing police functions, although the personnel composition underwent significant renewal in the process of revolutionary changes. On March 6, 1917, the Provisional Government issued a decree on the liquidation Separate building gendarmes, and on March 10, 1917 - a decree dissolving the Police Department. At the same time, mass attacks on police stations and institutions during the days of the February Revolution became a serious problem, during which revolutionary-minded citizens beat and disarmed members of the old tsarist police. The Provisional Government, in fact, failed to restore order in the sphere of law enforcement. Since the government in the country from March to October 1917 was in a state of crisis, there were constant changes in the composition of the government, including the ministers of internal affairs, and the creation of new law enforcement agencies stalled. According to the memoirs of Lieutenant General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, during the February Revolution, “the Ministry of Internal Affairs - which once actually held autocratic power in its hands and aroused universal hatred - went to the other extreme: it essentially abolished itself. The functions of the department were actually transferred in a dispersed form to local self-proclaimed organizations” (States and Rights of Russia: Textbook for Universities / Edited by S.A. Chibiryaev. - M., 1998). That is, in fact, police management was decentralized and transferred to local Soviets. Law enforcement functions were performed by armed units under local Soviets, which were called the police. However, their activities, for the most part, were limited to protecting the Soviets themselves. As for the fight against crime, it was actually reduced to a minimum, which led to an unprecedented increase in crime. Moreover, considering that during the days of the February Revolution, not only political prisoners of the tsarist regime were released from Russian prisons, but also a lot of criminals, many of whom pretended to be political prisoners in order to be released. Rampant crime on the streets Russian cities and in rural areas forced the Provisional Government to look for an urgent way out of the current situation. Shortly before the October Revolution, the Provisional Government tried to rectify the situation by involving army units in the protection of law and order, for which, on October 11, 1917, an order was issued to send the best officers and soldiers, primarily the St. George Knights, to the police. But since the October Revolution occurred two weeks later, the order of the Provisional Government was never put into practice.
Creation of the NKVD of the RSFSR and the workers' militia
The October Revolution abolished the Provisional Government and the local administrative structures subordinate to it, forming new authorities - the Soviets and executive committees of the Soviets. On October 26 (November 8), 1917, the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided to create the Council of People's Commissars, an executive body. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was created within its composition. He was given two main tasks - ensuring the process of Soviet construction and protecting the revolutionary order. That is, the NKVD was responsible for creating the local structure of the Soviets and monitoring their formation and activities, and for ensuring the protection of order and the fight against crime. The first People's Commissar of Internal Affairs was appointed Alexey Ivanovich Rykov (1881-1938) - an old Bolshevik with pre-revolutionary experience, released from exile in the Narym region after the February Revolution and elected deputy chairman of the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies, then a member of the presidium of the Petrograd Council of Workers' Deputies. However, Rykov stayed at the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR only for a short time. However, it was during the days of his leadership of the department that the NKVD decree “On the Workers’ Militia” was issued. Since it was Rykov who signed the decree, he can rightfully be considered the actual “founding father” of the Soviet police. However, soon after his appointment to the post of People's Commissar, Rykov went to work for the Moscow Soviet. The new People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky (1878-1958), another prominent Bolshevik figure, also freed by the February Revolution from his eternal settlement in Yakutia. During the inter-revolutionary months, Petrovsky led the Bolshevik organizations in the Donbass, and then, after the October Revolution, on November 17 (30), 1917, he headed the NKVD of the RSFSR and served as People's Commissar until March 30, 1919. That is, it was during the years of leadership of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Petrovsky that the immediate formation of the initial organizational structure of the Soviet police took place, its staff was recruited and the first victories were achieved on the fronts of the fight against crime.
Initially, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs covered a number of unrelated areas social activities. Thus, the competence of the NKVD of the RSFSR included: organization, selection of personnel and control over the activities of local Soviets; control over the execution of orders of the central government at the local level; protecting the “revolutionary order” and ensuring the safety of citizens; solving financial and economic issues of the police and fire protection; management of public utilities. The following were created within the NKVD: the Secretariat of the People's Commissariat, the Collegium of the People's Commissariat (in addition to G.I. Petrovsky himself, it included F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.Ya. Latsis, I.S. Unshlikht and M.S. Uritsky ), local government department, central statistical department, control and audit commission, medical department management department, veterinary department, financial department, local economy department, refugee department, foreign department and press bureau. The leadership of the workers' and peasants' militia, created on November 10, 1917, was carried out by the local government department. However, by the autumn of 1918, the structure of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs had undergone serious changes. Thus, the Main Police Directorate of the NKVD of the RSFSR was created, under whose subordination from that time was the entire police force of Soviet Russia. The creation of the Glavka was dictated by practical considerations and is associated with changes in the views of Soviet leaders on the features of the organization of the police.
The police become regular
Before the October Revolution, the leadership of the Bolshevik Party did not see the need to create a full-time, regular militia, since it adhered to the concept of replacing the regular armed forces and law enforcement agencies with armed people. Therefore, the NKVD resolution “On the Workers’ Militia” did not talk about the staff structure of the police. Soviet leaders saw the police as a voluntary workers' formation, and in the first months of Soviet power, police units actually represented mass amateur organizations, lacking a clear structure and developed responsibilities. But such formations could hardly solve the problems of fighting crime. Therefore, in the process of observing the experience of building a workers’ militia, the Soviet leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to transfer law enforcement agencies to a regular basis. On May 10, 1918, the NKVD Collegium adopted a decree on the formation of the police as a full-time organization performing clear duties, separated from the functions assigned to the Red Army. On May 15, 1918, the text of this order was sent throughout the country, and on June 5, 1918, the draft Regulations on the People's Workers' and Peasants' Guard (militia) was published. The processing of the project into an official instruction began after the corresponding order was given on August 21, 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Justice. On October 21, 1918, the joint Instruction of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR “On the organization of the Soviet workers' and peasants' militia” was approved. In accordance with this instruction, the leadership of the police was entrusted to the Main Police Department. Subordinate to him were the territorial divisions of the GUM NKVD - provincial and district administrations. Large urban centers created their own militia organizations. The lowest levels of the police system were also created - precincts headed by a precinct commander, who was subordinate to senior policemen and police officers. In December 1918, several more instructions were approved - this time by the Main Police Department. These were: General instructions for police officers, Instructions for senior and district police officers on duty, Instructions for district commanders and their assistants, Instructions for use. In accordance with the procedures of that time, the adopted instructions received mandatory approval from the First All-Russian Congress of heads of provincial and city police departments. Gradually, the police acquired the features of a strictly structured formation with military discipline. The “militarization” of the NKVD of the RSFSR was also manifested in the appointment of a new People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs. In March 1919, instead of Petrovsky, he was appointed chairman of the All-Russian emergency commission Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926) is a politician who needs no introduction. Under his leadership, the further organization of the official, political, and educational activities of the Soviet police took place.
On April 3, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR published a decree “On the Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Militia,” which introduced some adjustments and changes to the activities of the country's police. Thus, in accordance with this resolution, police officers were exempt from conscription into the Red Army and were considered seconded employees of the departments of the executive committees of the Soviets. Thus, the state emphasized the importance of law enforcement even in conditions Civil War, when every bayonet was precious to the fighting Red Army. Military discipline and compulsory military training were introduced for police officers, and police units operating in combat areas could be transferred to the command of the Red Army commanders and carry out combat missions. During 1918-1919 Further changes were introduced into the organizational structure of the police. Thus, in addition to the general militia, concentrated in districts and provinces and performing the main functions of fighting crime locally, special militias were created. Back in July 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On the establishment of the river police”, then - in February 1919 - the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR was adopted “On the organization of the railway police and railway security”. In April 1919, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree on the creation of the Soviet river workers' and peasants' militia. In the fall of 1919, a decision was made to create an industrial police force to protect state enterprises and combat the theft of socialist property. If initially the railway and river police were formed and operated on a territorial principle, then they were transferred to a linear principle of operation and were created under railways and on waterways.
The difficult situation in the fight against crime also required the creation of detective units conducting operational investigative activities. This is how the Soviet criminal investigation department appeared, which required a corresponding demarcation of powers between the criminal investigation department of the police and the Cheka. Since the security officers already had extensive experience in operational investigative activities, the heads of criminal investigation departments were seconded from the ranks of the Cheka to the police. In turn, criminal investigation officers working in line police departments on waterways and railways were transferred to the subordination of the Cheka. Criminal investigation departments were opened in major cities countries, and, if necessary, in small cities, if required operational situation. In 1919-1920 Criminal investigation officers, in addition to operational investigative activities, were also involved in conducting inquiries and preliminary investigations. Despite the fact that the October Revolution proclaimed the complete overthrow of the previous order and, accordingly, the system of organizing law enforcement agencies, already two years after the revolution the new government realized the need to use the experience of the tsarist law enforcement system. Without this experience, a full-fledged fight against crime and its prevention would not have been possible. In February 1919, the NKVD Collegium decided to create a forensic office, a registration office, a fingerprinting office and a museum. By October 1920, the structure of the Main Police Directorate of the NKVD of the RSFSR was also changed. The Main Directorate included eight departments: 1) general police (county-city), 2) industrial police, 3) railway police, 4) water police, 5) investigative and search police, 6) inspector department, 7) supply department, 8 ) secretariat. The police were entrusted with the functions of maintaining order and tranquility in the country, monitoring the execution of decisions and orders of the central and local authorities; protection of civil institutions and structures of national and exceptional importance, which included the telegraph, telephone, post office, water supply, factories, factories and mines; camp security; maintaining order and tranquility on the routes of communication of the RSFSR and escorting transported goods and valuables; assistance to bodies of all departments in the performance of the tasks assigned to them.
The first three years of the existence of the Soviet police saw not only its emergence as a new law enforcement agency, but also the most difficult and bloody fight against crime. In the conditions of the Civil War and the chaotization of social political life In a number of regions of Soviet Russia, the crime situation worsened, and armed gangs emerged that terrorized the local population. The number of gangs could reach several tens or even hundreds of people, so the police involved military units and forces of the Cheka in the fight against them. Crime was rampant in both rural areas and cities. It was difficult to cope with the gangs - firstly, because of their large numbers, secondly, they were universally armed with weapons no worse than those of the police, and thirdly, because of the low level of training and experience of the policemen themselves, among whom most consisted of yesterday's civilians without special skills. Therefore, losses in the ranks of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence were very large.
The robbery of Lenin and the “matter of honor” of the Moscow police
The scale of rampant crime in the first post-revolutionary years is evidenced by such widespread known fact like an attack by Moscow bandits on the car of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself. On January 6, 1919, on Christmas Eve, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin finished his working day at about 16.00 and decided to go to the Forest School to congratulate the children on the holiday. At about half past five he left the Kremlin Palace, accompanied by driver Stepan Gil, security guard Ivan Chabanov and sister Maria Ulyanova. Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was already waiting for him at the Forest School. The road lay in Sokolniki. Despite the unstable times and the Civil War, Lenin did not travel with an escort, but was limited to one car and one guard.
At this time, many gangs were operating in Moscow, consisting of both former criminals from the pre-revolutionary era, as well as deserters, declassed elements, former tsarist military personnel and police officers. One of these gangs was the group of a certain Yakov Koshelkov, who traded in robberies. Yakov Koshelkov himself, a hereditary criminal and burglar, despite his young years (he was born in 1890), had ten convictions by 1917 - even under the “old regime”. 
He continued his criminal path after the October Revolution, moving from home thefts to robbery. When the car with the leader of Soviet Russia was moving to the appointed place, the bandits were just about to rob the arcade on Lubyanka. To do this, they needed a car, so it was decided to go out into the street and grab the first car they came across. In addition to the gang leader Yakov Koshelkov, Vasily Zaitsev (“Hare”), Fyodor Alekseev (“Frog”), Alexey Kirillov (“Lyonka Shoemaker”), Ivan Volkov (“Konyok”) and Vasily Mikhailov went to attack the car. To his misfortune, it was precisely at this unfortunate time and in the unfortunate place that Lenin himself was traveling. Vladimir Ilyich’s driver Stepan Gil (by the way, a professional driver for high-ranking people - he served before the revolution in the Imperial Garage, and after Lenin’s death he drove Mikoyan and Vyshinsky), seeing armed people on the road, asked the “chief” for further instructions. Lenin, thinking that he was dealing with a Red Guard patrol, ordered the driver to stop. The leader of the Koshelkov gang, in turn, demanded that Lenin and his companions leave the car. Vladimir Ilyich, having identified himself, presented his identification, but the bandit, who thought it was not Lenin, but Levin, was not impressed by the words of the Bolshevik leader. “You never know how many Nepmen drive around here,” thought Koshelkov, and his bandits took the car, pistols and ID from Lenin and his companions. When Koshelkov drove off in the stolen car, he nevertheless looked at the selected ID... and was dumbfounded, thinking about how much money the Soviet government could pay for Lenin’s release. The bandit rushed back, trying to find the travelers, but it was too late - they left the scene. According to another version, Koshelkov was going to capture Lenin in order to exchange him for his arrested accomplices who were in Butyrka. At the very least, it is unlikely that a seasoned criminal, who was only interested in material gain, would be guided by political motives.
However, the adventures of Lenin and his companions did not end there - the sentry guarding the premises of the Sokolniki District Council, where the travelers who had lost their car and documents hurried, refused to let them through. The sentry did not recognize Lenin, nor did the man on duty at the district council. The chairman of the district council, who approached the leader and spoke to the leader in a very impudent tone, did not recognize Vladimir Ilyich either. Only when Lenin and his companions managed to get to the phone and call Peters to the Cheka, the chairman of the district council changed his tone and began to move. Two cars with armed Red Guards and a spare car for Lenin urgently arrived from the Kremlin. By the way, despite the fact that that evening Lenin was on the verge of death, he did not abandon his plan to travel to Sokolniki and still came to the children.
Naturally, the emergency with Lenin forced the Moscow police and the Cheka to intensify the fight against Moscow crime. Not knowing which gang carried out the attack on the Soviet leader, the Moscow police began a large-scale “cleansing” of the capital’s criminal world. In response, the bandits declared real war on the police. On January 24, 1919, one of the gangs, led by a certain Safonov, nicknamed “Saban,” drove around the capital in a car and shot police officers from the car. 16 policemen became victims of the Sabanovites. On the night of January 25, Koshelkov’s people used a similar scenario. They drove up to police posts in a car and blew the whistle, calling the guard. The latter came out, thinking that an inspector had arrived with an inspection, and was immediately shot. In one night, 22 police officers were killed in Moscow. The police and KGB authorities could not let the Moscow bandits get away with the murder of almost four dozen policemen within 24 hours. The security officers managed to as soon as possible detain most of the bandits from Koshelkov’s group. So, on February 3, a certain Pavlov, “Kozulya,” was arrested, who testified against other members of the gang. Soon five bandits were detained, including those who took part in the attack on Lenin’s car. They were shot on February 10. However, Koshelkov remained at large and committed further crimes. He killed the security officer Vedernikov, then the security officers Karavaev and Zuster, who were watching his apartment, and hid in the village of Novogireevo with his friend Klinkin, nicknamed “Efimych”. Klinkin was identified and arrested, but by this time Koshelkov had managed to leave his shelter. On May 1, he robbed participants in the May Day demonstration and shot three policemen, and on May 10, he staged a shootout in a coffee shop, where visitors recognized him and called the security officers. On May 19, in Konyushkovsky Lane they tried to take him again. Three bandits died, but Koshelkov again managed to outwit the police and escape. It seemed that the Moscow police would be looking for Yakov Koshelkov for a very long time - this professional criminal turned out to be too lucky. But, in the end, fortune stopped smiling at the twenty-nine-year-old robber.
On July 26, 1919, Koshelkov, together with bandits Emelyanov and Seryozhka Barin, were ambushed on Bozhedomka Street. His companions were shot, and Koshelkov was mortally wounded by a carbine and died at the scene. They found in his possession the IDs of the killed security officers and a Browning car - the same one that the bandit took from Lenin during the robbery of his car. As for Safonov - “Saban”, the police also managed to destroy or capture most of his group. But the leader, like Koshelkov, managed to escape. He settled down in his sister’s house in the town of Lebedyan. Although the sister sheltered her brother, he killed her and the entire family of eight, after which he fought with the police who surrounded the house. Although Safonov fired back with two pistols and even threw several hand bombs at the police, they managed to take him alive. Residents of Lebedyan, for the massacre of the family, demanded that Safonov be shot, which was carried out by representatives of the Soviet government. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself mentioned an incident that happened to him in his work “The Infantile Disease of “Leftism” in Communism”: “Imagine that your car was stopped by armed bandits. You give them money, a passport, a revolver, a car. You get rid of the pleasant neighborhood of bandits. There is a compromise, no doubt. “Do ut des” (“I give” you money, weapons, a car, “so that you give” me the opportunity to leave in good health). But it is difficult to find a person who has not gone crazy who would declare such a compromise “fundamentally unacceptable”... Our compromise with the bandits of German imperialism was similar to such a compromise.” The operation to defeat the Moscow gangs and destroy Koshelkov became a “matter of honor” for the Moscow police and security officers, which, as we see, they carried out with honor.
Fighting crime in Russian regions
During the Civil War, the Soviet police waged an intense fight against crime throughout Russia. But not only did the first Soviet police officers have to carry out their direct duties of searching for and detaining criminals, but they also had to protect public order. Sometimes they entered into hostilities with the “whites”, performing the functions of ordinary army units. In the spring of 1919, when General Yudenich’s troops were stationed near Petrograd, seven detachments with a total number of 1,500 bayonets were formed from among the Petrograd police officers. Soviet policemen fought on the fronts of the Civil War in the Urals and Volga region, in the North Caucasus, and in other regions of Russia. Thus, the Orenburg police in full force participated in the battles with the “whites” in April-May 1919. The police also carried out tasks to suppress the anti-Soviet uprisings that rose throughout the country by peasants dissatisfied with the Soviet regime. Without going into a discussion about whether the Bolshevik policy in the countryside was fair and justified, it should be noted that the police were simply carrying out their task, which the Soviet government set for them, as serving people. During the suppression of anti-Soviet protests, the police suffered numerous losses; not in all cases, their numbers were quickly restored, especially due to trained personnel. The police did not have experience serving in law enforcement agencies before the revolution, so they had to learn both operational investigative activities and the protection of public order already in the process of serving. Not only the elimination of armed gangs, but also the protection of the lives and property of citizens in these troubled years for Russia became the main task of the new law enforcement structure. So, on April 4, 1918, Moscow bandits tried to rob citizens' apartments. Yesterday's workers entered the battle with them, and after the revolution, policemen - Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov. The police managed to kill several bandits, the rest fled. Policeman Shvyrkov died in the shootout, and the second policeman Pekalov was mortally wounded. However, not a single apartment was robbed, and those living in them civilians remained alive and unharmed - at the cost of the lives of the dead policemen. One of the first heroes of the Soviet police, Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov, were buried near the Kremlin wall.
Anti-banditry squad of the Don Cheka
The Don police had to operate in very difficult conditions. In addition to local criminal gangs and the remnants of white and green detachments, the real problem for the Don police was attacks by gangs coming from the territory of neighboring Ukraine. So, in May - October 1921, gangs intensified, attacking the Don region. They burned carriages, robbed peasants, and killed residents of labor communes, including infants. In May 1921, in the area of Ilyinskaya and Glebovskaya volosts of the Rostov district (now the territory of the Kushchevsky district Krasnodar region) a gang of up to two hundred robbers appeared. The bandits felt so at ease that they were preparing an attack on the headquarters of the 8th district of the Rostov district police, located in the village of Ilyinka. But police chief K. Shevela learned in advance about the impending raid. The policemen, together with the Red Army workers' battalion stationed at state farm No. 7, decided to meet the bandits and prevent them from attacking the village. Despite the fact that there were significantly more bandits and they had better weapons, the courage and dedication of the police and Red Army soldiers did their job - they managed to detain the gang near the village. During this time, reinforcements from the Rostov district military registration and enlistment office arrived to help the fighting policemen and Red Army soldiers, after which the attacking gang was destroyed. In September 1921, a major clash with a gang occurred in the Nesvetaevskaya volost of the Rostov district. There, 80 mounted bandits with two machine guns attacked a police reconnaissance group, and then, in the Generalskaya volost area, an anti-banditry detachment. Eight policemen died in the battle with the bandits, but the detachment managed to push the bandits back beyond the Don region. In October 1921, the village of Ilyinka was attacked by a large gang of up to five hundred people, commanded by a certain Dubina. The gang had fifty carts with machine guns, two cars and a bomb launcher. In the village of Ilyinka, bandits began robbing civilians and killing Soviet workers. Only after the approach of a detachment of the Rostov district police and a cavalry regiment of a special brigade of the First Cavalry Army was it possible to encircle and destroy the Dubina bandits. In addition to such large gangs, which acted not only on the basis of the desire for profit, but also on the basis of ideological rejection of Soviet power, smaller criminal groups operated in the Don region, engaged in robberies, thefts, and hooligan attacks on defenseless people.
By the way, it was very difficult to resist the bandits of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence. Sometimes the police did not even have firearms or bladed weapons, and they had to go to apprehend dangerous criminals, armed with ordinary sticks. There were serious problems with uniforms and shoes; often the police were given bast shoes and wooden shoes. In addition, it was necessary to resolve issues with the training of personnel. Many police officers, especially those from rural areas, were illiterate, so in 1921 educational courses were organized to teach police officers to read, write and count. Thanks to the courses, it was possible to eliminate illiteracy among Soviet police officers, and already in 1923 a decision was made to ban the recruitment of illiterate citizens into the police service. Only by learning to read and write could an otherwise worthy citizen count on being accepted into service in the Soviet police. After the end of the Civil War, the police were replenished with former Red Army soldiers. The entry into service in the police of people who had gone through the war and were distinguished by great personal courage and good military training, played a very positive role in strengthening the Soviet police. First of all, the quality of service and combat training of police officers has improved, which immediately affected the effectiveness of ongoing operations to search for and detain dangerous gangs. Security officers who also passed the Civil War were also transferred to the police.
On the Don they remember the name of Ivan Nikitovich Khudozhnikov. A native of Lugansk, he was born in 1890 into a working-class family and, after graduating from a four-year school in 1905, became an apprentice at a locomotive-building plant. It was there that Khudozhnikov met the Bolsheviks. On May 1, 1917, the young man joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party. Until 1919, he continued to work at the factory, and then went to the committees of the peasant poor. Served in the Cheka. After the liberation of Rostov, Khudozhnikov was offered to go to work in the police and head the criminal investigation department of the Revolutionary Committee of Rostov and Nakhichevan. After a short time, Ivan Nikitovich headed the Rostov District Criminal Investigation Department. It is Khudozhnikov’s merit that not only deals a serious blow to the criminal world, but also restores order in the criminal investigation department itself. Before Khudozhnikov came to the department, many of his employees drank, took bribes and in every possible way discredited the rank of Soviet police officers. Having asked the party authorities to send several experienced communists to help, Khudozhnikov quickly freed the Don Criminal Investigation Department from dubious personnel and adjusted its work. Thanks to joint activities with security officers, the criminal investigation launched active work to eliminate bandits and criminals operating in the Rostov district. In most cases, Khudozhnikov personally supervised the arrests of bandits. So, at the end of the winter of 1922, a dangerous gang appeared in Rostov-on-Don under the leadership of Vasily Govorov, “Vasya Kotelka,” as his accomplices called him. The bandits engaged in robberies and murders, acting with amazing cruelty. Thus, the Kotelkovites gouged out the eyes of their victims. They brutally killed the two operatives who tracked down the gang. Finally, Khudozhnikov and his colleagues managed to track down the bandits. They were at a brothel in neighboring Novocherkassk. The assault on the Raspberry lasted almost 12 hours. But, despite the desperate resistance of the bandits, who perfectly understood their fate if detained, the operatives managed to capture alive the leader of the gang - “Vasya Kotelka” himself, as well as six of his accomplices. All of them were sentenced to death and shot.
Almost a century has passed since the events described, but on Police Day, which out of habit almost everyone calls “Police Day,” one cannot help but remind modern law enforcement officers and young people who are just choosing life path policeman, about the exploits of their colleagues in the distant years of the Civil War. Then “Born of the Revolution,” although it faced numerous problems - financial, personnel, and organizational, but even in these difficult conditions managed to fulfill the main task - to significantly reduce the merciless rampant crime. Of course, hundreds of thousands of people serve in the modern Russian police and other law enforcement agencies, whose courage and sincerity make them worthy successors to their predecessors. It remains to wish the soldiers of law and order not to disappoint their fellow citizens, to fulfill their duties with honor and to do without losses.
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November 10th yours professional holiday Russian police officers celebrate Internal Affairs Officer's Day. This year this day is special. The modern “tradition” of the Russian law enforcement system is celebrating its centenary. Exactly 100 years ago, on November 10, 1917, the People's Commissariat for internal affairs published a decree “On the Workers' Militia”. As Soviet Police Day, this date remains in the memory of millions of Russians, despite the numerous upheavals with renamings and reforms that the domestic law enforcement system has endured over its 100-year history. So, we can say with confidence that it is “Police Day” that is genuine, popular name holiday date November 10th.
Although in “State and Revolution” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin expressed almost anarchist thoughts about the imminent withering away of the state, about the need for universal arming of the people, the Bolsheviks realized the need to create personnel law enforcement agencies almost immediately after the revolution. If at first their ranks were dominated by the idea that crime would be dealt with by detachments of specially mobilized workers - the workers' militia, then very soon this utopian idea was replaced by a more rational approach. The need to create a professional police force was dictated by life itself. Following the revolution and the collapse of the tsarist law enforcement system, there was a colossal increase in crime. As you know, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin himself once became the “victim” of a criminal attack, whose car was stopped in 1919 by criminals from Yakov Koshelkov’s gang. All these circumstances forced the Soviet leadership to become concerned about strengthening the workers' militia and transforming it from an amateurish to a professional structure. In just a decade, the Soviet police turned into a powerful and extensive law enforcement apparatus, which over time surpassed its predecessor, the tsarist police.
By the way, the experience of the tsarist police was actively used later in strengthening the Soviet internal affairs agencies. If previously the tsarist police were perceived exclusively as “punishers”, “executioners” who served the exploitative regime, then, as crime grew, it became clear to the Soviet police officers that they could not do without the accumulated experience of their predecessors in the complex task of fighting crime. However, unlike the Red Army, where former tsarist officers served in huge numbers and many of them made a dizzying career already in Soviet time, in the law enforcement system everything turned out differently. The Soviet police used the experience of the tsarist police, but the overwhelming majority of the police themselves could not serve in Soviet law enforcement agencies. The attitude towards former law enforcement officers of the tsarist era in the 1920s - 1930s was the coolest, many of them faced trials, prisons and even executions.
Nevertheless, Soviet Russia, practically from scratch, managed to staff new law enforcement agencies - the Soviet police. This was not so easy to do. There are many ways scientific research, so works of art, dedicated to the first steps of the Soviet police. In those years, the militia was truly a people's force and was staffed primarily by workers and peasants, the poor and middle peasants. After the end of the Civil War, many Red Army soldiers were drawn to serve in the police. The Soviet police were staffed only by people from the working population, primarily by active workers. It was almost impossible for a representative of the “exploiting” strata to get into police service, unless we were talking about people with pre-revolutionary experience in underground activities in the ranks of the RSDLP (b).
A separate and very complex area was the training of national personnel for the regions of the North Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, where it was also necessary to deploy police departments and departments, to establish the effective work of the criminal investigation department and other police units. Special departments were opened at the Novocherkassk and Saratov police schools, where representatives of national minorities of the Soviet Union were trained for service in internal affairs bodies. The process of formation and development of the training system for Soviet police officers stretched over two post-revolutionary decades. As the police's needs for qualified personnel grew, the number of special educational institutions and the number of cadets increased. In 1936, schools for senior and middle-level police officers were transferred to a two-year training cycle, which was supposed to help improve the level of education and qualifications of police personnel. The old cadres - revolutionaries with pre-October experience - were replaced by a new generation - the younger generations of Soviet police officers, educated and trained in the Soviet Union.
The Great Patriotic War was a serious blow for the Soviet police. A huge number of policemen were mobilized to the front, to the active army. In many populated areas Due to the shortage of young male police officers, women, as well as older men, began to be actively recruited into the service. In the west of the Soviet Union, police officers took an active part in the fight against the occupiers, even without being called up to military service- they participated in the defense of their cities, joined partisan detachments, and created underground groups.
After the Great Patriotic War, he served in the internal affairs bodies a large number of front-line soldiers. Many officers and soldiers of the victorious Red Army after the war wanted to continue serving, if not in the army, then at least in the police. It was they, the people who went through the front, who broke the backbone of crime, which gained strength in the war and post-war years.
It should be noted that the demands on police officers grew as the general level education of Soviet citizens. If in the early 1920s. Since there were no special requirements for candidates for police service, in the second half of the twentieth century an effective system of professional education was already in operation. However, not only graduates of police schools, but also people from civilian backgrounds ended up serving in the police as middle and senior commanding officers. As a rule, these were university graduates who had behind them military department and therefore military rank"lieutenant" or "senior lieutenant". Yesterday's engineers, teachers, and representatives of various humanitarian professions flocked to Komsomol vouchers for the police.
Even now, among the police chiefs of the older generation, there are quite a few people who joined the police in the 1980s on Komsomol vouchers. Junior commanding officers were also recruited in a similar way, but here the emphasis was on yesterday’s demobilization. Soldiers and sergeants who served in military service were especially valued. internal troops Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, border troops of the KGB of the USSR, units of the Airborne Forces, Marine Corps. They were sent to the police on the recommendations of the command of units and subunits, or some time after demobilization - on the recommendations of labor collectives and party committees of enterprises. It must be said that this system of personnel selection for the Soviet police worked quite effectively.
The history of the Soviet police is full heroic deeds its employees. The names of the policemen who fell in battle with criminals remained forever in the memory of descendants. As you know, the period of several post-war years turned out to be very tense for Soviet policemen, when in war-ravaged Soviet cities Brutal criminal gangs were rampant, and a large number of street children appeared again. In the west of Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics there were detachments of nationalists and simply criminals hiding in the forests. Together with the soldiers of the internal and border troops, the police also took an active part in their destruction.
The Soviet police managed to solve the assigned tasks with honor and cope with high level crime in the country by the early 1950s. Then there were a couple of decades of relative calm. But even at this time, the Soviet police were always at the forefront - not only in the fight against crime, but also in general - in protecting citizens. On May 25, 1973, a column of 170 cyclists followed along the Novosibirsk - Pavlodar highway. At the head of the column was an escort vehicle Moskvich-412. It carried the senior traffic inspector of the State Traffic Inspectorate Dmitry Baiduga and inspector Alexander Shabaldin. A Zaporozhets car was driving towards the column. Suddenly a Kolkhida truck loaded with rubble appeared and tried to overtake the Zaporozhets. Realizing that a collision between the truck and the column could not be avoided, the police put their Moskvich under attack and thereby saved the column of cyclists. Posthumously, Dmitry Baiduga and Alexander Shabaldin received the Order of the Red Star.
Already in the 1970s - 1980s. The Soviet police were faced with such new and previously unprecedented types of crimes as, for example, hostage-taking. So, on November 2, 1973, four students hijacked a Yak-40 plane. It was for the heroism shown during his liberation that Alexander Ivanovich Popryadukhin received the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union - at that time a senior police lieutenant, senior inspector on duty of the 127th police department in Moscow, who was included in the operational group due to his excellent sports training (Alexander Ivanovich was a master of sports in sambo).
A new wave of crime swept the country at the turn of the 1980s - 1990s, and unusual crime, which the Soviet police had not encountered before. Powerful organized criminal groups and mafia structures emerged that had strong connections at the very top in the same law enforcement agencies. It was very difficult to resist organized crime, especially since there were temptations for the police officers themselves. It was during this period that many negative stereotypes about employees of internal affairs bodies and their widespread corruption took root in the public consciousness. Although in the 1990s, many police officers not only honestly carried out their service, but died in clashes with criminals, defending the life and peace of ordinary citizens.
At the end of the 1980s. special police units were also formed, primarily the legendary Police Detachment special purpose(OMON), then - the Special Rapid Reaction Unit (SOBR), which had to solve complex and dangerous tasks of power support of police and anti-terrorist operations. Today it is difficult to imagine a law enforcement system without police special forces (although not so long ago they were transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Federal service National Guard troops).
During the collapse of the Soviet Union, many “hot spots” appeared, in which a huge number of Russian police officers also served. It is impossible to underestimate the contribution of the Russian militia/police in the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus, and then in other regions of the country. Thousands of Russian police officers went through the “meat grinder” of two Chechen wars - both riot police and sobrov officers, as well as representatives of more “peaceful” police professions, including district police officers and juvenile affairs inspectors. The 1990s - 2000s gave the Russian police many real heroes. Unfortunately, many of them received their well-deserved awards posthumously.
Serving in the internal affairs bodies is hard and dangerous work. But citizens, due to a number of factors, perceive police officers, and then police officers, ambiguously. Many judge from their experience of conflicts with law enforcement officers as “ household level“-there they argued with the traffic cop, here the district police officer does not respond to complaints. Others are influenced by media publications, which, it must be said, are very unfavorable towards Russian police officers. Of course, there are many problems in the “system” and the police themselves know much more about them than people from the outside. Personnel turnover, low level of qualifications, corruption and cronyism, basic reluctance to work - all this, unfortunately, is present in the Russian law enforcement system, as indeed in all other spheres of society. However, when any problems arise, the first thing people do is run to them - to the police.
On the Day of the Internal Affairs Officer, which for the people still remains “Police Day”, to all former and current policemen and police officers, “Military Review” wishes all the best, and most importantly, health and success in a difficult, but much-needed country and people service.
On November 10, 1917, during the revolutionary events, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs issued a decree on the creation of the Workers' Militia.
The concept of the police appeared back in 1903 in the program of the Bolshevik Party, and in March 1917, after the Provisional Government came to power, the place of the tsarist police was taken by policemen. These were ordinary workers who stood at the machine during the day, and in the evening with rifles they went out into the streets to maintain order.
Even V.I. Lenin spoke about the need to create a “people’s militia,” which implied the complete arming of the people.
In fact, the work of maintaining order was carried out by the Red Guards of the revolutionary guard. The authorities understood that a separate body should maintain order within the country. In August 1918, a decision was made to create a militia. This new body existed throughout the entire period of Soviet power.
The police became workers' and peasants' and people over the age of 23 could serve there.
The tsarist police forces simply needed to be reorganized, because, according to F.Z. Dzerzhinsky, new people could not bring anything good to the previous law enforcement agencies. But this ideology was ignored by the authorities, and the Soviet police of that time consisted of non-professionals.
In the turbulent post-revolutionary times, the history of the police was written in blood. In the spring of 1918, the first policemen died in the fight against bandits.
The first weapons that the new law enforcement officers were armed with were the Mauser and the revolver. The Mauser is a well-known powerful weapon that was in use almost until the 50s of the last century.
On October 5, 1918, the authorities issued regulations on the creation of departments to combat criminal crime. under the tsarist regime, it was transformed into the MUR - Moscow Criminal Investigation Department.
“Murovites” wore a special one on the lapels of their jackets - a crescent moon and a “Murovsky eye” - an all-seeing eye. Departmental distinction was issued for a certain period of time.
The main task of the MUR employees was to destroy armed gangs, of which there were about 30 in Moscow alone.
First about external signs We didn’t really think about the differences. The policemen wore civilian clothes and only wore red bands on their arms. In 1923 they reached the point of introducing the form. The Soviet foot police of that time had black uniforms, and the mounted ones had dark blue. New insignia appeared almost every year. The colors of the buttonholes, the signs themselves and their configuration changed.
In 1931, the uniform of the Soviet policeman became gray. The newly minted law enforcement officers had no titles, only positions.
Along with the appearance of ranks in the army in 1936, police officers also received ranks. In addition to sergeants and lieutenants, police directors also appeared - the most important ranks. In 1943, shoulder straps were also introduced, and blue became the main color of the insignia.
In 1947, the cut of the uniform changed and the color red appeared. In the famous children's poem by Sergei Mikhalkov about Uncle Styopa, such a policeman who stands at his post is very vividly depicted.
On January 13, 1962, we were shocked by the story of a heroic policeman who, while standing on duty, saved a woman and children from a drunken armed criminal. The local police officer himself was mortally wounded and was posthumously awarded the title of hero.
Women appeared in the ranks of the Soviet police back in 1919. Many representatives of the fairer sex worked in the years of the Great Patriotic War. And in peacetime, almost a quarter of employees successfully combined shoulder straps with a skirt.
In fact, women during critical situations act no worse than men. In addition, the peculiarities of psychology make them valuable employees of internal organs.
The famous writer served in the Soviet police for 20 years, analyzing criminal crimes. She became the most famous retired lieutenant colonel by writing a series of detective novels about the everyday life of internal affairs workers.
To solve problems with personnel training, the authorities opened the USSR Police became more professional, thanks to permanent schools and advanced training courses for district police officers and guards. In order to get into the investigative authorities, it was necessary to graduate from the Higher Police School.
Since the mid-60s, the state has constantly raised the prestige of the police in the eyes of the population. Facilities mass media and the creative intelligentsia worked to create a positive hero - a Soviet policeman. The USSR police became very popular among the people, thanks to fascinating films.
Since 1962, a holiday was officially introduced - Police Day in the USSR. The date November 10 was celebrated before, but more locally. At the state level, on this day the police were congratulated by officials and the best artists of the country.
Soviet people firmly believed and repeated the phrase that became popular: “Our police are protecting us!”
Context
The Police Law comes into force in Russia. Below is reference Information about the history of the police in Russia.
Police is the historically established name of public order bodies in the Russian Federation and a number of CIS countries.
After the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the tsarist police were liquidated. The replacement of the police with a “people's militia” was proclaimed. The legal basis for the organization and activities of the police was created by the resolutions of the Provisional Government “On the approval of the police” and the “Temporary regulations on the police”, issued in April 1917. After the October Revolution, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets legally enshrined education Soviet state and consolidated the liquidation of the Provisional Government and its bodies, including the police.
The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) on November 10 (October 28, old style), 1917, adopted the decree “On the Workers' Militia,” which stated that all Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies would establish a workers' militia, which would be entirely and exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Soviets workers' and soldiers' deputies. This resolution became the legal basis for the creation of the Soviet police.
On May 10, 1918, the Board of the NKVD of the RSFSR decided that “the police exist as a permanent staff of people performing special functions"From this moment on, the militia from the "people's" begins the transition to the professional category.
The NKVD and the People's Commissariat of Justice on October 12, 1918 approved the instruction "On the organization of the Soviet workers' and peasants' militia", which legally established the creation of a full-time professional militia in the RSFSR as "the executive body of the workers' and peasants' central government in the localities, under the direct jurisdiction of local Soviets and subordinate to the general leadership of the NKVD."
In 1920, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) approved the first regulation “On the Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia.” In accordance with it, the police included: city and county police, industrial, railway, water (river, sea), and search police. Service in the police was voluntary.
Over time, new units emerged within the police force. In 1936, divisions of the State Automobile Inspectorate (SAI) were created, and in 1937 - to combat theft and profiteering (BCSS). By 1941, the structure of the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia included departments of criminal investigation, BHSS, external service, traffic police, railway police, passport, scientific and technical, and anti-banditry departments. Subsequently, over the years, the police included such departments as special-purpose police detachments - special forces (1987), special-purpose police detachment - OMON (1988), Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime - GUBOP (1992) and others. In 1990, the National Central Bureau of Interpol was created in Russia.
Initially, the police were subordinate to and part of the NKVD of the RSFSR (1917-1930), on December 15, 1930, the Central Executive Committee (Central Executive Committee) and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the liquidation of the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs of the Union and Autonomous Republics." After the abolition of the People's Commissariats, on the basis of the departments of public utilities, police and criminal investigation, departments of the same name were established directly under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. This order remained in place until 1934. Then the NKVD of the USSR was reorganized, and the police were subordinate to it (1934-1946), then the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministry of Internal Affairs) of the USSR (1946-1960), the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR (1960-1968), the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1968-1991). Since 1991, the police were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR. In December 1991, after USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, the RSFSR Law “On Changing the Name of the Russian Soviet Federative State” was adopted. Socialist Republic", according to which the state of the RSFSR began to be called Russian Federation(Russia). In this regard, all bodies, institutions and organizations of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs on the territory of Russia were transferred under the jurisdiction of Russia and included in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
By 2004, the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation included 37 departments (directorates); on November 5, 2004, the president signed a decree, according to which these departments were replaced by 15 departments.
Until March 1, 2011, police activities were regulated federal law RSFSR "On the Police", which came into force on April 18, 1991. In accordance with this law, the police in Russia are divided into criminal and public security police (MSB). The criminal police included units of criminal investigation, combating economic crimes, combating drug trafficking, countering extremism, and others. The MOB included duty units, local police inspectors, State inspection road safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, temporary detention centers for suspects and accused; special reception centers for holding persons arrested under administrative procedure and other units.
On December 12, 1993, the All-Russian vote adopted the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which enshrined the main provisions of the RSFSR Law “On the Police.”
At the initiative of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, on August 7, 2010, a public discussion on the draft law “On the Police” was opened on the Internet and lasted until September 15.
The zenith of public fame for the Soviet police was the image of investigator Gleb Sharapov and his young comrade Volodya Sharapov in the film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.” These bright and courageous people showed that all police officers in the 30s - 80s of the 20th century were the same. Soviet propaganda fostered this love.
“Cleansing” the ranks The main task of a policeman - maintaining the legal order of the existing government at all times required the same impeccability from him in public and family life. In the 30s, not a trace remained of the Leninist police, organized by Felix Dzerzhinsky: a radical restructuring of its police work followed. According to the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars, police departments and criminal investigation departments were also established: the police acquired independent features of an executive authority. The Workers' and Peasants' Militia received a new disciplinary charter. Another trend of those years was that a “purge” was actively carried out in the ranks of the police nearby, and each police officer was obliged to report to higher management about illegal facts on the part of his colleagues. The personnel had to be “clean” - this slogan was the basis in the work of a number of units.
Police Sambo
1938 At the same time, the basics of hand-to-hand combat against a criminal with a knife, pistol, or stick were introduced into the training system for police officers. With the advent of new types of self-defense, the police began to use sambo (this type of self-defense without weapons was created in the USSR in 1938). And the cycle of military physical training included such disciplines as: military topography and tactics. A man in a dark blue uniform with a Nagan system pistol was supposed to have excellent command of all types of weapons.
Rigid vertical
Also in the 30s, the foundations of the police were laid, the units of which, until the 60s, were considered to be built in a rigidly vertical structure: all subordinates had to strictly follow the orders of their superiors. And so - to the very top.
History of the CPSU and thieves' jargon
Each policeman was required to complete work in accordance with his profile educational institution and have an excellent knowledge of laws and all departmental regulations. Moreover, training sometimes took place during service. A Soviet policeman was required to know not only the criminal process, executive law, and the civil code, but also to have a good understanding of political life, to know the history of the CPSU and political economy, and also be a culturally developed person, visit theaters and cinema, know the literature included in the list of the Lenin Corner program. The basics of life in the criminal world, thieves' jargon, concepts, the main characters of the criminal community - the policeman had to know all this.
They didn't take payment
It must be admitted that by the end of the 60s they could boast of professional education higher education only nine percent of managers and only about 18 percent of middle managers had a high school diploma. And this is despite the fact that since the beginning of the 30s, training fees have not been collected from future police officers in accordance with the Resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated November 11, 1927 “On measures to improve the life and service of workers’ and peasants’ militia workers.
Constitution and horses
In the 1930s, policemen of mounted regiments had to know two Constitutions - the USSR and the RSFSR, Soviet legislation and military affairs, combining these classes with three-hour trips to practice with horses in the field. A police rider had to have excellent dressage, teach his horse not to be afraid of shots, rustles, and to lie down on command.
Virgin soil in uniform
With the opening of new facilities and new construction sites, new tasks were assigned to the police. After the launch of the Moscow Metro, the Soviet policeman had to protect not only the property of the road, but also carefully monitor the protection of public order underground. When the development of virgin lands began, entire police detachments were sent there on long-term business trips to identify criminals among the developers of the new lands.
