Vlasov A. E., Shtepa A. V.

Vlasov A. E., Shtepa A. V.

“They started doing their dirty deed…”: Informants and Snitches in Kaluga Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party Р. 24-33.

 

UDC 94(470.318).083

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2021.73.4.003

 

Abstract. The article focuses on the formation of a political investigation department, a unit of the Gendarmerie force in the Kaluga Province. The article discloses the name of the superior gendarmerie officer who supervised political investigations performed by the Gendarmerie force in the Kaluga Province. The article treats the officer’s rights and duties associated with the supervision of the department. The authors analyze and assess the results of the officer’s work in the spheres controlled by the secret services of the Russian Empire (cooperation with inside and outside informants, snitches, surveillance agents working in various departments of the Kaluga Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in Kaluga and the Kaluga Province). Informants, snitches and surveillance agents were employed by a specially trained gendarmerie officer. Informants and snitches helped Kaluga gendarmes to locate printing houses of the Kaluga Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party and places where printing equipment was stored. Informants and snitches helped Kaluga gendarmes to locate the safe house members of the Kaluga Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party used to meet with revolutionaries from other cities. Informants and snitches helped Kaluga gendarmes to locate a place Kaluga Social Democrats used to meet with party members from other towns of the Kaluga Province. Due to informants’ help Kaluga gendarmes managed to destroy a safe house used by the fighting squad of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in the Kaluga Province. By the summer of 1907, the fighting squad of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in the Kaluga Province had been completely destroyed. The authors conclude that the political investigation department of the Gendarmerie force in the Kaluga Province functioned really effectively during the first two years of its existence.

Keywords: fighting squad, Kaluga Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, Gendarmerie force of the Kaluga Province, informant, snitch, investigation department, captain N. M. Nikiforov, secret agent, underground printing house, tracker.

 

References:

 

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