Authors

Jamie Bryson¹;  ¹ University of Exeter, UK

Discussion

The late Russian Empire’s relied on its security police to maintain order and protect the government from subversion. The Okhrana, as it is often referred to, is a broad term for a diverse range of agencies. It grew in power and stature in 1881 following the assassination of Alexander II, replacing the previous incarnation of state security, the Third Section of Nicholas I. The Security Law of 1881 enhanced the power of the Okhrana and became the legal basis for its operations right up until the February revolution of 1917. Previous historians like Frederic Zuckerman, Jonathan Daly and Iain Lauchlan have considered the security police, but in particular its dramatic struggle with the revolutionary movement in the early years of the 20th century. Following 1905, the regularity of revolutionary terror and agent provocateurs like the infamous Evno Azev have legitimately attracted academic attention. In these histories, the Okhrana was the main weapon of the tsarist state, used to fight obvious opposition such as socialists, revolutionary terror and organised political parties. However, the First World War demanded the role of the Okhrana expand as the opposition changed and new challenges emerged. The security apparatus had to contend with a new environment. The participation of society in the war effort (through the formation of ‘public organsiations’) , the exchange of rumours amongst the masses, civil-military conflict, unrest in the army, imperial collapse, the challenge posed by ‘enemy aliens’, spy mania and a huge refugee crisis changed the established dynamic. This paper will sample some of these themes, which are discussed more comprehensively in my PhD (in progress), illustrating the changing priorities of the wartime secret police.

Looking at published and archived surveillance reports, Department of Police Circulars (as well as memoir material) in the build up to the revolution more intensively, and with the benefit of more recent scholarship on state practices, the First World War and the February revolution, helps to advance new perspectives. Using reports on popular moods can help us consider the way regimes thought on the inside, giving insight into the mentalities and political frameworks of those who made them. Police reports point toward the relative sophistication of the tsarist police’s understanding of the social and political situation when confronted with unforeseen challenges raised by the war. 

It has been the underlying assumption of numerous studies that the war years were something of an ‘epilogue’ for the Okhrana. This line of argument presupposes that the historical significance of the Okhrana was closely tied to the prominence of the revolutionary movement, which is problematic given that the regime did not fall as a result of the organised revolutionary underground.