“Former” Political Police Employees of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Society

Abstract

The review of the collection of documents traces the fate of ex-employees of the political police of the Russian Empire in Soviet times. The principles of selection, categorization, composition of the identified set of sources form the source base, topical scientific issues. The compilers managed to provide a representative range of documents, which reflect, the methods of Soviet state policy in relation to personnel, secret agents of the political police of the Russian Empire. Documentary materials characterize the ways of social adaptation of the “former” employees in the new realities of the revolutionary and post-revolutionary world. They reflect the waves of political repression of the Soviet government. A wide range of sources, mainly from the state and departmental archives of the Ulyanovsk region, as well as materials from the Borovsk Museum of local history (the Kaluga region), made it possible to identify the stages of rehabilitation of former political prisoners. It is necessary to particularly point out the value of the submitted documents of special records management systems. It is noteworthy that the authors have also paid attention to the state archival policy, identified the principles of using and preserving the funds of the political police, and determined the specifics of working with them.