Центральный филёрский отряд при Санкт-Петербургском охранном отделении – субъект обеспечения безопасности главы государства в Российской империи

Abstract

The article is devoted to the organization and activities of the Central Snitch Squad at the Saint-Petersburg Security Department for ensuring the security of the head of state in the Russian Empire. The normative basis for the activities of agents of the Central Snitch Squad and the specifics of implementation of their job descriptions are described in the article. The Central Snitch Squad was a separate division of the Search and Surveillance Service of the Russian Empire, which solved the various and most complex tasks of search-and-surveillance. The Central Snitch Squad operated until the fall of the monarchy in February 1917, but the experience gained by it in fulfilling tasks of national importance continues to be used in modern Russia. At the same time, the issues of the organization and functioning of the Central Snitch Squad have not received a comprehensive analysis yet. One of the activities of the Central Snitch Squad, which has not received proper coverage in historical and legal literature, is the protection of imperial majesties in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, its regulation and implementation has become the subject of this article. The main and integrating method of research on the organization and activities of the Central Snitch Squad was the method of materialist dialectics. General logical (deduction, induction, analysis and synthesis), general scientific (systemic, structural-functional, typologization) and special (formal-legal, historical-legal, comparative-legal, interpretations of regulatory legal acts, sociological and statistical) methods of legal research were used. It was concluded that the protection of imperial majesties and the highest persons in the Russian Empire was one of the most important areas of activity of the gendarmerie. The simultaneous existence of three different divisions that guarded the emperor ‒ the Central Snitch Squad, the Security Unit and the Security Agency led to duplication of agents activities and inconsistent actions of the units. The Central Snitch Squad of the Saint-Petersburg Security Department has accumulated a variety of search-and-surveillance experience that can be used to solve problems of national importance in modern Russia.