Overcoming the consequences of the breakdown of the law enforcement system of the Russian Empire in railway transport in the early years of Soviet Russia

Abstract

We examine the problems that arose as a result of the activities of the young Soviet state in the first years of its formation after the liquidation of specialized law enforcement agencies operating at railway transport facilities in tsarist Russia – the gendarmerie railway police. It is shown that the scrapping of the old law enforcement system provoked irreversible processes that had a devastating impact on the state of public order and public safety at the country’s railway transport facilities. The Civil War worsened the state of public order and public safety on the railway lines. Rail transport was on the verge of collapse. Separated and deprived of a single control center, the transport was unable to provide the necessary level of capacity. The issues of public order protection and public safety, in this regard, were relegated to a secondary plan. The primary task of the Soviet government was to maintain control over railway transport, to ensure its carrying capacity. We analyze the social relations that developed in the early years of Soviet power on railway lines in the conditions of the vacuum of specialized units and organizations directly involved in the protection of public order and ensuring public safety on railway lines. We analyze the situation in which Russian railway transport found itself after October 1917 and the circumstances that led to the creation of Soviet law enforcement agencies on railway transport.