Konstantin Andreevich Popov and the Last Provocation of the Omsk Gendarmes (January 1917)

Abstract

This article analyzes Ivan Dmitrievich Krasilnikov’s letter to the Social Democrat Konstantin Andreevich Popov (1876–1949) in Omsk on the eve of revolutionary events in 1917. In this letter, Krasilnikov offered assistance and cooperation due to his unwillingness to serve his leadership. As an act of goodwill, Krasilnikov reported that the Social Democrat P. F. Mikhailov was a secret employee of the state and supplied the gendarmerie with valuable information. Subsequent revolutionary events showed that the information about P. F. Mikhailov and Krasilnikov’s intentions did not correspond to reality. Using unpublished sources from the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region (which contains documents from the Omsk Gendarme Office on the work of secret officers), this study identified and analyzed available historical sources, contents of the letter, conditions and reasons of its appearance, and goals and consequences of this action. This is the record keeping documentation of the. This work allows us to show a previously unknown episode of the life path of K. A. Popov and specifics of the specifics of the Omsk gendarme administration. This should be of interest to a wide range of readers; researchers in the history of the revolution and the Civil War in Russia, as well as specialists in the history of the domestic special services.