Born of revolution. The first steps of the Soviet police
November 10 Russia celebrates Police Day. Until recently, when the militia was renamed the police, this significant date was called much more familiar - the Police Day. After all, November 10, 1917 of the year, exactly 98 years ago, adopted a decree On Labor Police, which initiated the law enforcement system of Soviet Russia and the law enforcement agencies of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation formed on its basis.
From February to October
Although the decree “On workers' militia” was adopted after the October revolution, the prehistory of the creation of the militia leaves during the February revolution of 1917. In the process of post-revolutionary transformations, the law-enforcement system that existed before the February revolution in the Russian Empire underwent fundamental changes. In accordance with the “Declaration of the Provisional Government on its composition and tasks” of March 3, 1917, it was decided to replace the police by the people's militia. It was assumed that the people's militia would be subordinated to the local self-government bodies, and the leading positions would become elective. However, despite the fact that the commanding staff in the police was supposed to be chosen, the police themselves remained a regular unit with established posts. Thus, in fact, the renaming of the police to the police was not associated with a fundamental change in the structure of the formation of the law enforcement agency. The police did not become a “militia of the rule of law”, in which all interested people or specially delegated citizens could participate. It remained a professional police body, although the personnel in the process of revolutionary change has undergone significant renewal. The interim government of 6 March 1917 issued a decree on the liquidation of the Separate gendarme corps, and 10 March 1917 ordered the dissolution of the Police Department. At the same time, mass attacks on police stations and institutions in the days of the February Revolution, during which revolutionary-minded citizens beat and disarmed officers of the old tsarist police, became a serious problem. The interim government, in fact, failed to restore order in the field of law enforcement. Since the power in the country from March to October 1917 was in a state of crisis, there were constant changes in the composition of the government, including the interior ministers, the creation of new law enforcement agencies was stalled. According to the memoirs of Lieutenant-General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, in the process of the February revolution, “the Ministry of the Interior - once actually holding autocratic power and causing general hatred - hit the other extreme: it was essentially self-dissolving. The functions of the department actually transferred in spray form to the local self-proclaimed organizations ”(History States and Laws of Russia: A Textbook for High Schools, Ed. S.A. Chibiryayev. - M., 1998). That is, in fact, the management of the police was decentralized and transferred to the local Soviets. Law-enforcement functions were carried out by armed units under local Soviets, which were called the police. However, their activity, for the most part, was limited only to the protection of the Soviets themselves. As for the fight against crime, it was actually minimized, which led to an unprecedented increase in crime. Especially if we take into account that in the days of the February Revolution not only political prisoners of the tsarist regime were released from Russian prisons, but also a mass of criminals, many of whom, in order to free themselves, presented themselves as political prisoners. Rampant crime in the streets of Russian cities and in the countryside forced the Provisional Government to seek an urgent way out of this situation. Shortly before the October Revolution, the Provisional Government attempted to rectify the situation by attracting army units to law enforcement, for which on October 11 1917 an order was issued to send the best officers and soldiers, primarily Georgians, to the police. But since two weeks later the October revolution occurred, the order of the Provisional Government was never implemented in practice.
Creation of the NKVD of the RSFSR and the working militia
The October Revolution eliminated the Provisional Government and its subordinate administrative structures on the ground, forming new authorities - the Soviets and Executive Committees of the Soviets. October 26 (November 8) The 1917 of the 2 All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided to establish the Council of People's Commissars - the executive body. In its structure the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was created. Two main tasks were set before him — ensuring the process of Soviet construction and protecting the revolutionary order. That is, the NKVD was responsible for creating on-site structures of the Soviets and monitoring their formation and activities, and for maintaining law enforcement and the fight against crime. Alexey Ivanovich Rykov (1881-1938), an old Bolshevik with pre-revolutionary experience, who was released from exile in the Narym Territory after the February Revolution and elected deputy chairman of the Moscow Council of Workers 'Deputies, then a member of the Presidium of the Petrograd Workers' Deputies was appointed the first people's commissar of internal affairs. However, Rykov was only held for a short time as the people's commissar of the interior of the RSFSR. However, it was in the days of his leadership of the department that the resolution of the NKVD “On the working police” was issued. Since it was Rykov who signed the decree, he can rightfully be considered the actual “founding father” of the Soviet militia. However, shortly after his appointment as People's Commissar, Rykov went to work at the Moscow City Council. Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky (1878-1958), another prominent Bolshevik leader, also liberated the February Revolution from the eternal settlement in Yakutia, became the new people's commissar of the interior of the RSFSR. In the interrevolutionary months, Petrovsky led the Bolshevik organizations in the Donbass, and then, after the October Revolution, 17 (30) in November 1917 headed the NKVD of the RSFSR and remained as people's commissar until March 30 in 1919. That is, it was in the years of the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Petrovsky that the initial organizational structure of the Soviet militia was directly formed, its staff was recruited and the first victories on the fronts of the fight against crime were made.
Initially, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs covered a whole series of areas of social activity that were little connected with each other. So, in the competence of the NKVD of the RSFSR were: the organization, recruitment and control over the activities of local Soviets; control over the execution of orders of the central government in the field; guarding “revolutionary order” and ensuring the safety of citizens; solving financial and economic issues of the police and fire brigade; management of utilities. The following organizations were created within the NKVD: the Secretariat of the People's Commissariat, the board of the People's Commissariat (in addition to G. I. Petrovsky himself, he included F. Dzerzhinsky, M. Ya. Latsis, I. S. Unshlikht, and M. S. Uritsky ), local government department, central statistical department, control and auditing commission, medical part management department, veterinary department, financial department, local economy department, refugee department, foreign department and press bureau. The leadership of the worker-peasant militia, established on November 10 of 1917, was carried out by the local government department. However, by the autumn of 1918, the structure of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs had undergone major changes. Thus, the Main Directorate of the NKVD Police of the RSFSR was created, from which all the police of Soviet Russia have been subordinate since that time. The creation of Glavka was dictated by practical considerations and is associated with changes in the views of Soviet leaders on the characteristics of the police organization.
Police becomes regular
Before the October Revolution, the leadership of the Bolshevik Party did not see the need to create a regular, regular police force, because it adhered to the concept of replacing regular armed forces and law enforcement agencies with armed people. Therefore, the decision of the NKVD "On the working militia" did not deal with the regular structure of the police. The Soviet leaders saw the militia as a voluntary work unit and in the first months of Soviet power the militia units were actually mass amateur organizations, devoid of a clear structure and developed responsibilities. But the tasks of fighting crime such formations could be solved with difficulty. Therefore, in the process of monitoring the experience of building a militia, the Soviet leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to transfer law enforcement agencies to a full-time basis. 10 in May 1918, the NKVD Board issued a decree on the formation of the police as a full-fledged organization performing clear duties, separated from the functions assigned to the Red Army. 15 in May 1918. The text of this order was distributed throughout the country, and on 5 in June 1918 a draft Regulation on the People’s Workers 'and Peasants' Guard (the Police) was published. The processing of the project into a service instruction began after the relevant order given by 21 in August 1918 by the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People’s Commissariat of Justice. October 21 1918 was approved joint instruction of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR "On the organization of the Soviet workers 'and peasants' militia". In accordance with this instruction, the leadership of the police was entrusted to the General Directorate of Police. In his subordination were the territorial divisions of the NKVD GUM - provincial and district administrations. In large urban centers, their own militia organizations were created. The lowest units of the militia system were also created - the sections headed by the district chief, in whose subordination there were senior policemen and policemen. In December 1918 was approved a few more instructions - already the General Directorate of Police. These were: General instructions for police officers, Instructions for senior and local police officers on duty, Instructions for district supervisors and their assistants, Instructions for use weapons. In accordance with the procedures of that time, the adopted instructions received the mandatory approval of the First All-Russian Congress of heads of provincial and city police departments. Gradually, the police acquired the features of a rigidly structured formation with military discipline. The “militarization” of the NKVD of the RSFSR was also manifested in the appointment of a new people's commissar of internal affairs. In March 1919, instead of Petrovsky, he was appointed Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), the chairman of the All-Russian Emergency Commission, a politician who does not need a presentation. Under his leadership, the further organization of the official, political, training activities of the Soviet militia took place.
3 April 1919 The Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR published a decree “On the Soviet Workers 'and Peasants' Militia”, which made some adjustments and changes to the activities of the country's police. Thus, in accordance with this decree, the police officers were exempted from conscription to the Red Army and were considered seconded officers of the executive committees of the Soviets. Thus, the state emphasized the importance of law enforcement, even in the conditions of the Civil War, when the fighting bayonet was dear to the fighting Red Army. For militiamen military discipline and compulsory military training were introduced, and units of the militia operating in combat areas could be transferred into submission to the commanders of the Red Army and perform combat missions. During the 1918-1919. further changes were introduced into the organizational structure of the police. Thus, in addition to the general police, concentrated in the counties and provinces and performing the main functions of the fight against crime in the field, special police were created. As early as July 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted a decree “On the establishment of river police”, then, in February 1919, a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On the organization of railway police and railway guards” was adopted. In April, 1919 adopted a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the establishment of the Soviet River Workers 'and Peasants' Militia. In the autumn of 1919, it was decided to establish an industrial militia to protect state enterprises and combat the theft of socialist property. If initially the railway and river militia were formed and acted on the territorial principle, then they were transferred to the linear principle of work and were created at the railways and on waterways.
The difficult situation in the fight against crime has also required the creation of detective units conducting operational investigative activities. So the Soviet criminal investigation department appeared, which required a corresponding separation of powers between the criminal investigation department of the police and the Cheka. Since the Chekists already had a wealth of operational and investigative activities, the heads of criminal investigation departments were seconded from the ranks of the Cheka. In turn, the criminal investigation officers working in the linear police departments on water and railway lines were transferred to the subordination of the Cheka. Offices of the criminal investigation department were opened in major cities of the country, and, if necessary, in small towns, if operational conditions required it. In 1919-1920 Criminal investigation officers, in addition to operational investigative activities, were also engaged in conducting inquiries and preliminary investigations. Despite the fact that the October Revolution proclaimed the complete overthrow of the previous order and, accordingly, the system of organizing law enforcement agencies, two years after the revolution, the new government realized the need to use the experience of the tsarist law enforcement system. Without this experience, a full-fledged fight against crime and its prevention was not possible. In February, 1919 was decided by the NKVD Collegium to create a forensic examination room, a registration bureau, a fingerprint bureau and a museum. By October 1920, the structure of the General Directorate of the Police of the NKVD of the RSFSR was changed. Glavka consisted of eight divisions: 1) general police (district-city), 2) industrial police, 3) railway police, 4) water police, 5) investigative police, 6) inspection department, 7) supply department, 8 a) secretariat. The police were entrusted with the functions of maintaining order and calm in the country, monitoring the execution of decrees and orders of the central and local authorities; the protection of civilian institutions and structures of national and exceptional importance, which included the telegraph, telephone, post, plumbing, factories, plants and mines; camp guard; maintaining order and calm on the ways of communication of the RSFSR and escorting the goods and valuables being transported; assistance to all agencies in the execution of their tasks.
In the first three years of the existence of the Soviet militia, it was necessary not only to establish it as a new law enforcement agency, but also the most difficult and bloody struggle against crime. In the conditions of the Civil War and the chaos of social and political life in a number of regions of Soviet Russia, the criminogenic situation worsened, armed gangs appeared, terrorizing the local population. The number of gangs could reach several dozen, or even hundreds of people, so the police attracted military units and the Cheka forces to fight them. Crime raged in the countryside and in the cities. It was difficult to cope with gangs - firstly, because of their multiplicity, secondly - total armament is not worse than that of the policemen, and, thirdly, because of the low level of training and experience of the police themselves, most of whom were yesterday's civilians without special skills. Therefore, the losses in the ranks of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence were very high.
The robbery of Lenin and the "matter of honor" of the Moscow police
The scale of rampant crime in the first post-revolutionary years is also evidenced by such a well-known fact as the attack of Moscow thugs on the car of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself. 6 January 1919, on Christmas Eve, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, for 16.00 hours, finished his working day and decided to go to the Forest School to congratulate the children on the holiday. At about half past four he left the Kremlin Palace, accompanied by driver Stepan Gil, security guard Ivan Chabanov and sister Maria Ulianova. At the Forest School, Nadezhda Krupskaya was already waiting for him. The road lay in Sokolniki. Despite the unstable time and the Civil War, Lenin did not move with an escort, but limited himself to one car and one security guard.
At that time, many gangs were operating in Moscow, consisting of former criminals from the pre-revolutionary era as well as deserters, declassed elements, former royal servicemen and police officers. One of these gangs was a group of a certain Yakov Koshelkov, who was engaged in robberies. Yakov Koshelkov himself is a hereditary criminal and a burglar thief, despite his young years (he was born in 1890), by 1917 he had ten previous convictions - even under the “old regime”.
He continued the criminal path after the October Revolution, moving from home theft to robbery. When the car with the leader of Soviet Russia was moving to the designated place, the gangsters were just about to rob a passage in Lubyanka. To do this, they needed a car, so it was decided to go out and seize the first car. In addition to the leader of the gang of Yakov Koshelkov, Vasily Zaitsev (“Hare”), Fedor Alekseev (“Frog”), Alexey Kirillov (“Lyonka Sapozhnik”), Ivan Volkov (“The Horse”) and Vasily Mikhailov set off to attack the car. To his misfortune, it was at this unfortunate time and in the wrong place that Lenin himself rode. The driver of Vladimir Ilyich Stepan Gil (by the way, a professional driver of high-ranking people - he served before the revolution in the Imperial garage, and after Lenin’s death drove Mikoyan and Vyshinsky), seeing armed men on the road, asked the “chief” for further instructions. Lenin, thinking that he was dealing with a Red Guard patrol, ordered the driver to stop. The leader of the gang of purses, in turn, demanded that Lenin and his companions leave the car. Vladimir Ilyich, having called himself, presented a certificate, but the gangster, who heard not Lenin, but Levin, was not impressed by the leader of the Bolsheviks. "Doesn't the NEPman drive here?" Thought Purses, and his gangsters took the car, pistols and ID card from Lenin and his companions. When Wallet drove away in a hijacked car, he still looked at the selected ID ... and was taken aback, wondering how much money Soviet power could have paid for the liberation of Lenin. The gangster rushed back, trying to find travelers, but it was already too late - they left the scene. According to another version, Koshelkov was going to seize Lenin for the purpose of exchanging for the arrested accomplices who were in Butyrka. At least, it is unlikely that a seasoned criminal, who was interested only in material profit, would be guided by political motives.
However, the adventures of Lenin and his companions did not end with this - the sentry who was guarding the premises of the Sokolnichesky District Council, to which the travelers who lost their car and documents, hurried, refused to let them go. Lenin sentry did not recognize, as well as the duty officer of the district council. I did not recognize Vladimir Ilyich and the chairman of the district council who approached him, who was very impudent in speaking with the leader. Only when Lenin and his companions managed to get to the telephone and call Petersa to the Cheka, did the chairman of the district council change their tone and begin to stir. Two cars with armed Red Guards and a spare car for Lenin urgently arrived from the Kremlin. By the way, in spite of the fact that Lenin was on the verge of death that evening, he did not refuse the plan for a trip to Sokolniki and nevertheless came to the children.
Naturally, an emergency with Lenin forced the Moscow police and the Cheka to step up the fight against Moscow crime. Not knowing which of the gangs launched the attack on the Soviet leader, the Moscow police began a large-scale “purge” of the criminal world of the capital. In response, the bandits declared a real war to the police. 24 January 1919, one of the gangs, which was led by a certain Safonov, nicknamed “Saban”, traveled around the capital in a car and shot police officers out of a car. The victims of “sabanovtsy” became 16 militiamen. On the night of January 25, a similar scenario was used by the people of Koshelkov. By car, they drove up to the police posts and whistled a whistle, calling the guard. The latter came out, thinking that the inspector had arrived with the inspection, and he was immediately shot. In one night, 22 militiamen were killed in Moscow. The murder of nearly four dozen policemen within 24 hours by police and KGB bosses could not get the Moscow bandits off their hands. The Chekists managed to detain most of the bandits from the Koshelkov group as soon as possible. So, February 3 arrested a certain Pavlov - “Kozul”, who testified against other members of the gang. Soon, five gangsters were detained, including participants in the attack on Lenin's car. They were shot 10 February. However, Wallet remained free and committed further crimes. He killed the security officer Vedernikov, then the security officers Karavaev and Zuster, who were keeping an eye on his apartment, and hid in the village of Novogireevo from his friend Klinkin, nicknamed "Efimich." Klinkin was calculated and arrested, but the Wallets by this time managed to leave his refuge. On May 1, he robbed participants of the May Day demonstration and shot three policemen, and on May 10 arranged a firefight at a coffee shop, where visitors identified him and called security officers. May 19 in Konyushkovsky Lane tried to take him again. Three gangsters died, but Purse again managed to trick the police and escape. It seemed that Moscow police would look for Yakov Koshelkov for a very long time - this professional criminal turned out to be too successful. But, in the end, fortune stopped smiling to a twenty-nine-year-old robber.
26 July 1919 of the Year Purses, along with the bandits Yemelyanov and Seryozhka Barin, was ambushed on Bozhedomka Street. His companions were shot, and Purse was fatally wounded from a carbine and died at the scene. He found the identity of the murdered security officers and Browning - the same one that the gang chose from Lenin during the robbery of his car. As for Safonov - “Sabana”, the police also succeeded in destroying or overfishing most of his group. But the leader, like Wallet, managed to escape. He sat down at his sister's house in the town of Lebedyan. Although her sister sheltered her brother, he killed her and the entire family of eight, after which she took the fight to the police who surrounded the house. Although Safonov fired two pistols and even threw several hand bombs at the policemen, he managed to get him alive. The residents of Lebedyan, for the massacre of the family, demanded that Safonov be shot, which was executed by representatives of the Soviet government. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself mentioned the incident that happened to him in the work “Children's Left-Wing Disease in Communism”: “Imagine that your car was stopped by armed bandits. You give them money, a passport, a revolver, a car. You get rid of a pleasant neighborhood with the bandits. The compromise is obvious, undoubtedly. “Do ut des” (“I give” you money, weapons, a car, “so that you give” me the opportunity to leave and pick up the good). But it is difficult to find a person who has not gone mad, who would have declared such a compromise “fundamentally unacceptable” ... Our compromise with the bandits of German imperialism was similar to such a compromise. ” The operation to defeat the Moscow gangs and destroy Koshelkov became the “honor” of the Moscow police and the KGB, which, as we see, they honorably carried out.
The fight against crime in the regions of Russia
During the years of the Civil War, the Soviet police waged a tense struggle against crime throughout Russia. But not only to fulfill their direct duties to search for and detain criminals, to protect public order accounted for the first Soviet police. At times, they also entered into hostilities with the “whites”, performing the functions of regular army units. In the spring of 1919, when General Yudenich's troops were stationed at Petrograd, seven detachments of a total of 1500 bayonets were formed from the staff of the Petrograd police. Soviet police officers fought on the fronts of the Civil War in the Urals and the Volga region, in the North Caucasus, in other regions of Russia. Thus, the Orenburg police in full participated in the battles with the “white” in April-May 1919. The police carried out tasks to suppress anti-Soviet uprisings that were raised throughout the country by peasants dissatisfied with the Soviet authorities. Without going into discussions about whether the Bolsheviks' policy in the countryside was fair and justified, it should be noted that the police simply performed their task, which the Soviet government had set for them as service people. During the suppression of anti-Soviet demonstrations, the police suffered numerous losses, not in all cases its number could be quickly restored, especially at the expense of trained personnel. The police had no experience of serving in law enforcement agencies before the revolution; therefore, they had to learn both operational and investigative activities and the protection of public order in the course of their service. Not only the elimination of armed gangs, but also the protection of citizens' lives and property in these troubled years for Russia became the main task of the new law enforcement structure. So, 4 on April 1918, Moscow gangsters tried to rob citizens of their apartments. Yesterday’s workers entered into battle with them, and after the revolution the policemen, Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov, entered. Militiamen managed to destroy several gangsters, the rest fled. Policeman Shvyrkov died in a shootout, the second policeman Pekalov was fatally wounded. However, not a single apartment was robbed, and the civilians living in them remained alive and unharmed - at the cost of the lives of the dead policemen. One of the first heroes of the Soviet militia, Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov, were buried near the Kremlin wall.
- detachment to fight banditry Donskoy Cheka
In very difficult conditions, Don Don had to act. In addition to local criminal gangs and remnants of white and green squads, attacks on gangs that raided the territory of neighboring Ukraine became a real problem for Don policemen. So, in May - October 1921, the gangs that attacked the Don region became more active. They burned cars, robbed peasants, killed the inhabitants of the labor communes, including infants. In May, a gang of up to two hundred robbers appeared in the 1921 district in the Ilinsky and Glebovsky volosts of the Rostov district (now the territory of the Kushchevsky district of the Krasnodar Territory). The gangsters felt so at ease that they were preparing an attack on the 8 headquarters of the Rostov district militia stationed in the village of Ilyinka. But the police chief, K. Shevela, had learned in advance about the impending raid. The militiamen, together with the Red Army workers' battalion stationed at State Farm No. 7, decided to meet the gangsters and prevent them from attacking the village. Despite the fact that the bandits were much larger, and they had better armament, the courage and dedication of the police and Red Army men did their job - they managed to keep the gang near the village. During this time, reinforcements from the Rostov district military registration and enlistment office arrived in time to help the fighting militiamen and the Red Army soldiers, after which the attacked gang was destroyed. In September, 1921 was a major clash with a gang in the area of the Nesvetaevskoy parish of the Rostov district. There 80 horse bandits with two machine guns attacked a group of police intelligence, and then - in the area of the Generals Volost - a detachment to combat banditry. In the battle with the gangsters, eight policemen died, but the detachment managed to throw the gangsters outside the Don region. In October 1921, a large gang of up to five hundred people, commanded by one of Dubin, attacked the village of Ilyinka. The gang had fifty machine-gun carriages, two cars and a bomb. In the village of Ilyinka, bandits set about looting civilians and killing Soviet workers. Only after the approach of the detachment of the Rostov district militia and cavalry regiment of a special brigade of the First Cavalry Army managed to encircle and destroy the gangsters of Dubin. In addition to such large gangs, which acted not only on the basis of the desire for profit, but also on the basis of the ideological rejection of the Soviet power, smaller criminal groups operated in the Don region, hunted by robberies, thefts, and hooligan attacks on defenseless people.
By the way, it was very difficult to resist the bandits of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence. Sometimes the policemen did not even have firearms and cold weapons, and they had to go to apprehend dangerous criminals, armed with ordinary sticks. There were serious problems with uniforms and shoes, often policemen were given bast shoes and wooden shoes. In addition, it was necessary to solve issues with the preparation of personnel. Many policemen, especially from among the villagers, were illiterate, so in 1921, educational courses were organized for police officers to read, write and account. Thanks to the courses, illiteracy was eliminated among Soviet policemen, and already in 1923, it was decided to ban recruitment of illiterate citizens to the police service. Only by learning to read and write, a citizen worthy of other indicators could expect to be employed in the Soviet police. After the end of the Civil War, the militia was replenished with former Red Army men. The arrival of people in the militia who went through the war and were distinguished by great personal courage and good military training played a very positive role in strengthening the Soviet police. First of all, the quality of service and combat training of police officers improved, which immediately affected the effectiveness of the search and detention of dangerous gangs. Transferred to the police and security officers, also past civil.
Don remember the name of Ivan Nikitovich Hudozhnikov. A native of Lugansk, he was born in 1890 in a working-class family and after graduating from a four-year school in 1905, he became a student at a locomotive building plant. It was there that the Artists met the Bolsheviks. 1 May 1917 A young man joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party. Until 1919, he continued to work at the plant, and then went to the committees of the peasant poor. He served in the Cheka. After the release of Rostov, the artist was offered to go to work at the police station and head the criminal investigation subdivision of the Rostov and Nakhichevan Revkom. After a short time, Ivan Nikitovich headed the Rostov District Criminal Investigation Department. It is Khudozhnikov’s merit that is not only a serious blow to the criminal world, but also the establishment of order in the criminal search itself. Before the Artists came to the department, many of its employees drank, took bribes and in every way discredited the title of Soviet policemen. Having asked the party organs to send several experienced communists to help, the Artists quickly freed the Don threat officer from questionable cadres and set up his work. Thanks to joint activities with the security officers, the criminal investigation department launched an active work on the elimination of gangsters and felons who were operating in the Rostov district. In most cases, the artists personally supervised the ongoing detention of bandits. So, at the end of winter 1922 in Rostov-on-Don a dangerous gang appeared under the leadership of Vasily Govorov, “Vasi Kotelka”, as his accomplices called him. The bandits hunted down robberies and murders, acting with amazing cruelty. So, the “Kotelkovites” gouged out the eyes of their victims. They tracked down a gang of two operatives. Finally, Hudozhnikov and his colleagues managed to track down the bandits. They were on a brothel in nearby Novocherkassk. The raspberry assault lasted almost 12 hours. But, despite the desperate resistance of the gangsters who perfectly understood their fate in the event of detention, the operatives managed to take alive the leader of the gang - Vasya Kotelka himself, as well as his six accomplices. All of them were sentenced to death and shot.
Almost a century has passed since the events described, but on Police Day, which almost everyone is accustomed to calling “Police Day”, it is impossible not to remind modern law enforcement officers and young people just choosing the life of a police officer for themselves, about the exploits of their colleagues in distant years Civil war Then the “Born of Revolution”, although faced with numerous problems - financial, personnel, and organizational, but even in these difficult conditions was able to perform the main task - to significantly reduce the merciless outburst of crime. Of course, hundreds of thousands of people also serve in the modern Russian police and other power structures, whose courage and sincerity make them worthy successors of their predecessors. It remains to wish the soldiers of law and order not to disappoint their fellow citizens, to fulfill their duties with honor and to do without losses.
From February to October
Although the decree “On workers' militia” was adopted after the October revolution, the prehistory of the creation of the militia leaves during the February revolution of 1917. In the process of post-revolutionary transformations, the law-enforcement system that existed before the February revolution in the Russian Empire underwent fundamental changes. In accordance with the “Declaration of the Provisional Government on its composition and tasks” of March 3, 1917, it was decided to replace the police by the people's militia. It was assumed that the people's militia would be subordinated to the local self-government bodies, and the leading positions would become elective. However, despite the fact that the commanding staff in the police was supposed to be chosen, the police themselves remained a regular unit with established posts. Thus, in fact, the renaming of the police to the police was not associated with a fundamental change in the structure of the formation of the law enforcement agency. The police did not become a “militia of the rule of law”, in which all interested people or specially delegated citizens could participate. It remained a professional police body, although the personnel in the process of revolutionary change has undergone significant renewal. The interim government of 6 March 1917 issued a decree on the liquidation of the Separate gendarme corps, and 10 March 1917 ordered the dissolution of the Police Department. At the same time, mass attacks on police stations and institutions in the days of the February Revolution, during which revolutionary-minded citizens beat and disarmed officers of the old tsarist police, became a serious problem. The interim government, in fact, failed to restore order in the field of law enforcement. Since the power in the country from March to October 1917 was in a state of crisis, there were constant changes in the composition of the government, including the interior ministers, the creation of new law enforcement agencies was stalled. According to the memoirs of Lieutenant-General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, in the process of the February revolution, “the Ministry of the Interior - once actually holding autocratic power and causing general hatred - hit the other extreme: it was essentially self-dissolving. The functions of the department actually transferred in spray form to the local self-proclaimed organizations ”(History States and Laws of Russia: A Textbook for High Schools, Ed. S.A. Chibiryayev. - M., 1998). That is, in fact, the management of the police was decentralized and transferred to the local Soviets. Law-enforcement functions were carried out by armed units under local Soviets, which were called the police. However, their activity, for the most part, was limited only to the protection of the Soviets themselves. As for the fight against crime, it was actually minimized, which led to an unprecedented increase in crime. Especially if we take into account that in the days of the February Revolution not only political prisoners of the tsarist regime were released from Russian prisons, but also a mass of criminals, many of whom, in order to free themselves, presented themselves as political prisoners. Rampant crime in the streets of Russian cities and in the countryside forced the Provisional Government to seek an urgent way out of this situation. Shortly before the October Revolution, the Provisional Government attempted to rectify the situation by attracting army units to law enforcement, for which on October 11 1917 an order was issued to send the best officers and soldiers, primarily Georgians, to the police. But since two weeks later the October revolution occurred, the order of the Provisional Government was never implemented in practice.
Creation of the NKVD of the RSFSR and the working militia
The October Revolution eliminated the Provisional Government and its subordinate administrative structures on the ground, forming new authorities - the Soviets and Executive Committees of the Soviets. October 26 (November 8) The 1917 of the 2 All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided to establish the Council of People's Commissars - the executive body. In its structure the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was created. Two main tasks were set before him — ensuring the process of Soviet construction and protecting the revolutionary order. That is, the NKVD was responsible for creating on-site structures of the Soviets and monitoring their formation and activities, and for maintaining law enforcement and the fight against crime. Alexey Ivanovich Rykov (1881-1938), an old Bolshevik with pre-revolutionary experience, who was released from exile in the Narym Territory after the February Revolution and elected deputy chairman of the Moscow Council of Workers 'Deputies, then a member of the Presidium of the Petrograd Workers' Deputies was appointed the first people's commissar of internal affairs. However, Rykov was only held for a short time as the people's commissar of the interior of the RSFSR. However, it was in the days of his leadership of the department that the resolution of the NKVD “On the working police” was issued. Since it was Rykov who signed the decree, he can rightfully be considered the actual “founding father” of the Soviet militia. However, shortly after his appointment as People's Commissar, Rykov went to work at the Moscow City Council. Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky (1878-1958), another prominent Bolshevik leader, also liberated the February Revolution from the eternal settlement in Yakutia, became the new people's commissar of the interior of the RSFSR. In the interrevolutionary months, Petrovsky led the Bolshevik organizations in the Donbass, and then, after the October Revolution, 17 (30) in November 1917 headed the NKVD of the RSFSR and remained as people's commissar until March 30 in 1919. That is, it was in the years of the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Petrovsky that the initial organizational structure of the Soviet militia was directly formed, its staff was recruited and the first victories on the fronts of the fight against crime were made.
Initially, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs covered a whole series of areas of social activity that were little connected with each other. So, in the competence of the NKVD of the RSFSR were: the organization, recruitment and control over the activities of local Soviets; control over the execution of orders of the central government in the field; guarding “revolutionary order” and ensuring the safety of citizens; solving financial and economic issues of the police and fire brigade; management of utilities. The following organizations were created within the NKVD: the Secretariat of the People's Commissariat, the board of the People's Commissariat (in addition to G. I. Petrovsky himself, he included F. Dzerzhinsky, M. Ya. Latsis, I. S. Unshlikht, and M. S. Uritsky ), local government department, central statistical department, control and auditing commission, medical part management department, veterinary department, financial department, local economy department, refugee department, foreign department and press bureau. The leadership of the worker-peasant militia, established on November 10 of 1917, was carried out by the local government department. However, by the autumn of 1918, the structure of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs had undergone major changes. Thus, the Main Directorate of the NKVD Police of the RSFSR was created, from which all the police of Soviet Russia have been subordinate since that time. The creation of Glavka was dictated by practical considerations and is associated with changes in the views of Soviet leaders on the characteristics of the police organization.
Police becomes regular
Before the October Revolution, the leadership of the Bolshevik Party did not see the need to create a regular, regular police force, because it adhered to the concept of replacing regular armed forces and law enforcement agencies with armed people. Therefore, the decision of the NKVD "On the working militia" did not deal with the regular structure of the police. The Soviet leaders saw the militia as a voluntary work unit and in the first months of Soviet power the militia units were actually mass amateur organizations, devoid of a clear structure and developed responsibilities. But the tasks of fighting crime such formations could be solved with difficulty. Therefore, in the process of monitoring the experience of building a militia, the Soviet leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to transfer law enforcement agencies to a full-time basis. 10 in May 1918, the NKVD Board issued a decree on the formation of the police as a full-fledged organization performing clear duties, separated from the functions assigned to the Red Army. 15 in May 1918. The text of this order was distributed throughout the country, and on 5 in June 1918 a draft Regulation on the People’s Workers 'and Peasants' Guard (the Police) was published. The processing of the project into a service instruction began after the relevant order given by 21 in August 1918 by the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People’s Commissariat of Justice. October 21 1918 was approved joint instruction of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR "On the organization of the Soviet workers 'and peasants' militia". In accordance with this instruction, the leadership of the police was entrusted to the General Directorate of Police. In his subordination were the territorial divisions of the NKVD GUM - provincial and district administrations. In large urban centers, their own militia organizations were created. The lowest units of the militia system were also created - the sections headed by the district chief, in whose subordination there were senior policemen and policemen. In December 1918 was approved a few more instructions - already the General Directorate of Police. These were: General instructions for police officers, Instructions for senior and local police officers on duty, Instructions for district supervisors and their assistants, Instructions for use weapons. In accordance with the procedures of that time, the adopted instructions received the mandatory approval of the First All-Russian Congress of heads of provincial and city police departments. Gradually, the police acquired the features of a rigidly structured formation with military discipline. The “militarization” of the NKVD of the RSFSR was also manifested in the appointment of a new people's commissar of internal affairs. In March 1919, instead of Petrovsky, he was appointed Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), the chairman of the All-Russian Emergency Commission, a politician who does not need a presentation. Under his leadership, the further organization of the official, political, training activities of the Soviet militia took place.
3 April 1919 The Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR published a decree “On the Soviet Workers 'and Peasants' Militia”, which made some adjustments and changes to the activities of the country's police. Thus, in accordance with this decree, the police officers were exempted from conscription to the Red Army and were considered seconded officers of the executive committees of the Soviets. Thus, the state emphasized the importance of law enforcement, even in the conditions of the Civil War, when the fighting bayonet was dear to the fighting Red Army. For militiamen military discipline and compulsory military training were introduced, and units of the militia operating in combat areas could be transferred into submission to the commanders of the Red Army and perform combat missions. During the 1918-1919. further changes were introduced into the organizational structure of the police. Thus, in addition to the general police, concentrated in the counties and provinces and performing the main functions of the fight against crime in the field, special police were created. As early as July 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted a decree “On the establishment of river police”, then, in February 1919, a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On the organization of railway police and railway guards” was adopted. In April, 1919 adopted a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the establishment of the Soviet River Workers 'and Peasants' Militia. In the autumn of 1919, it was decided to establish an industrial militia to protect state enterprises and combat the theft of socialist property. If initially the railway and river militia were formed and acted on the territorial principle, then they were transferred to the linear principle of work and were created at the railways and on waterways.
The difficult situation in the fight against crime has also required the creation of detective units conducting operational investigative activities. So the Soviet criminal investigation department appeared, which required a corresponding separation of powers between the criminal investigation department of the police and the Cheka. Since the Chekists already had a wealth of operational and investigative activities, the heads of criminal investigation departments were seconded from the ranks of the Cheka. In turn, the criminal investigation officers working in the linear police departments on water and railway lines were transferred to the subordination of the Cheka. Offices of the criminal investigation department were opened in major cities of the country, and, if necessary, in small towns, if operational conditions required it. In 1919-1920 Criminal investigation officers, in addition to operational investigative activities, were also engaged in conducting inquiries and preliminary investigations. Despite the fact that the October Revolution proclaimed the complete overthrow of the previous order and, accordingly, the system of organizing law enforcement agencies, two years after the revolution, the new government realized the need to use the experience of the tsarist law enforcement system. Without this experience, a full-fledged fight against crime and its prevention was not possible. In February, 1919 was decided by the NKVD Collegium to create a forensic examination room, a registration bureau, a fingerprint bureau and a museum. By October 1920, the structure of the General Directorate of the Police of the NKVD of the RSFSR was changed. Glavka consisted of eight divisions: 1) general police (district-city), 2) industrial police, 3) railway police, 4) water police, 5) investigative police, 6) inspection department, 7) supply department, 8 a) secretariat. The police were entrusted with the functions of maintaining order and calm in the country, monitoring the execution of decrees and orders of the central and local authorities; the protection of civilian institutions and structures of national and exceptional importance, which included the telegraph, telephone, post, plumbing, factories, plants and mines; camp guard; maintaining order and calm on the ways of communication of the RSFSR and escorting the goods and valuables being transported; assistance to all agencies in the execution of their tasks. In the first three years of the existence of the Soviet militia, it was necessary not only to establish it as a new law enforcement agency, but also the most difficult and bloody struggle against crime. In the conditions of the Civil War and the chaos of social and political life in a number of regions of Soviet Russia, the criminogenic situation worsened, armed gangs appeared, terrorizing the local population. The number of gangs could reach several dozen, or even hundreds of people, so the police attracted military units and the Cheka forces to fight them. Crime raged in the countryside and in the cities. It was difficult to cope with gangs - firstly, because of their multiplicity, secondly - total armament is not worse than that of the policemen, and, thirdly, because of the low level of training and experience of the police themselves, most of whom were yesterday's civilians without special skills. Therefore, the losses in the ranks of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence were very high.
The robbery of Lenin and the "matter of honor" of the Moscow police
The scale of rampant crime in the first post-revolutionary years is also evidenced by such a well-known fact as the attack of Moscow thugs on the car of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself. 6 January 1919, on Christmas Eve, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, for 16.00 hours, finished his working day and decided to go to the Forest School to congratulate the children on the holiday. At about half past four he left the Kremlin Palace, accompanied by driver Stepan Gil, security guard Ivan Chabanov and sister Maria Ulianova. At the Forest School, Nadezhda Krupskaya was already waiting for him. The road lay in Sokolniki. Despite the unstable time and the Civil War, Lenin did not move with an escort, but limited himself to one car and one security guard.
At that time, many gangs were operating in Moscow, consisting of former criminals from the pre-revolutionary era as well as deserters, declassed elements, former royal servicemen and police officers. One of these gangs was a group of a certain Yakov Koshelkov, who was engaged in robberies. Yakov Koshelkov himself is a hereditary criminal and a burglar thief, despite his young years (he was born in 1890), by 1917 he had ten previous convictions - even under the “old regime”.
He continued the criminal path after the October Revolution, moving from home theft to robbery. When the car with the leader of Soviet Russia was moving to the designated place, the gangsters were just about to rob a passage in Lubyanka. To do this, they needed a car, so it was decided to go out and seize the first car. In addition to the leader of the gang of Yakov Koshelkov, Vasily Zaitsev (“Hare”), Fedor Alekseev (“Frog”), Alexey Kirillov (“Lyonka Sapozhnik”), Ivan Volkov (“The Horse”) and Vasily Mikhailov set off to attack the car. To his misfortune, it was at this unfortunate time and in the wrong place that Lenin himself rode. The driver of Vladimir Ilyich Stepan Gil (by the way, a professional driver of high-ranking people - he served before the revolution in the Imperial garage, and after Lenin’s death drove Mikoyan and Vyshinsky), seeing armed men on the road, asked the “chief” for further instructions. Lenin, thinking that he was dealing with a Red Guard patrol, ordered the driver to stop. The leader of the gang of purses, in turn, demanded that Lenin and his companions leave the car. Vladimir Ilyich, having called himself, presented a certificate, but the gangster, who heard not Lenin, but Levin, was not impressed by the leader of the Bolsheviks. "Doesn't the NEPman drive here?" Thought Purses, and his gangsters took the car, pistols and ID card from Lenin and his companions. When Wallet drove away in a hijacked car, he still looked at the selected ID ... and was taken aback, wondering how much money Soviet power could have paid for the liberation of Lenin. The gangster rushed back, trying to find travelers, but it was already too late - they left the scene. According to another version, Koshelkov was going to seize Lenin for the purpose of exchanging for the arrested accomplices who were in Butyrka. At least, it is unlikely that a seasoned criminal, who was interested only in material profit, would be guided by political motives. However, the adventures of Lenin and his companions did not end with this - the sentry who was guarding the premises of the Sokolnichesky District Council, to which the travelers who lost their car and documents, hurried, refused to let them go. Lenin sentry did not recognize, as well as the duty officer of the district council. I did not recognize Vladimir Ilyich and the chairman of the district council who approached him, who was very impudent in speaking with the leader. Only when Lenin and his companions managed to get to the telephone and call Petersa to the Cheka, did the chairman of the district council change their tone and begin to stir. Two cars with armed Red Guards and a spare car for Lenin urgently arrived from the Kremlin. By the way, in spite of the fact that Lenin was on the verge of death that evening, he did not refuse the plan for a trip to Sokolniki and nevertheless came to the children.
Naturally, an emergency with Lenin forced the Moscow police and the Cheka to step up the fight against Moscow crime. Not knowing which of the gangs launched the attack on the Soviet leader, the Moscow police began a large-scale “purge” of the criminal world of the capital. In response, the bandits declared a real war to the police. 24 January 1919, one of the gangs, which was led by a certain Safonov, nicknamed “Saban”, traveled around the capital in a car and shot police officers out of a car. The victims of “sabanovtsy” became 16 militiamen. On the night of January 25, a similar scenario was used by the people of Koshelkov. By car, they drove up to the police posts and whistled a whistle, calling the guard. The latter came out, thinking that the inspector had arrived with the inspection, and he was immediately shot. In one night, 22 militiamen were killed in Moscow. The murder of nearly four dozen policemen within 24 hours by police and KGB bosses could not get the Moscow bandits off their hands. The Chekists managed to detain most of the bandits from the Koshelkov group as soon as possible. So, February 3 arrested a certain Pavlov - “Kozul”, who testified against other members of the gang. Soon, five gangsters were detained, including participants in the attack on Lenin's car. They were shot 10 February. However, Wallet remained free and committed further crimes. He killed the security officer Vedernikov, then the security officers Karavaev and Zuster, who were keeping an eye on his apartment, and hid in the village of Novogireevo from his friend Klinkin, nicknamed "Efimich." Klinkin was calculated and arrested, but the Wallets by this time managed to leave his refuge. On May 1, he robbed participants of the May Day demonstration and shot three policemen, and on May 10 arranged a firefight at a coffee shop, where visitors identified him and called security officers. May 19 in Konyushkovsky Lane tried to take him again. Three gangsters died, but Purse again managed to trick the police and escape. It seemed that Moscow police would look for Yakov Koshelkov for a very long time - this professional criminal turned out to be too successful. But, in the end, fortune stopped smiling to a twenty-nine-year-old robber.
26 July 1919 of the Year Purses, along with the bandits Yemelyanov and Seryozhka Barin, was ambushed on Bozhedomka Street. His companions were shot, and Purse was fatally wounded from a carbine and died at the scene. He found the identity of the murdered security officers and Browning - the same one that the gang chose from Lenin during the robbery of his car. As for Safonov - “Sabana”, the police also succeeded in destroying or overfishing most of his group. But the leader, like Wallet, managed to escape. He sat down at his sister's house in the town of Lebedyan. Although her sister sheltered her brother, he killed her and the entire family of eight, after which she took the fight to the police who surrounded the house. Although Safonov fired two pistols and even threw several hand bombs at the policemen, he managed to get him alive. The residents of Lebedyan, for the massacre of the family, demanded that Safonov be shot, which was executed by representatives of the Soviet government. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself mentioned the incident that happened to him in the work “Children's Left-Wing Disease in Communism”: “Imagine that your car was stopped by armed bandits. You give them money, a passport, a revolver, a car. You get rid of a pleasant neighborhood with the bandits. The compromise is obvious, undoubtedly. “Do ut des” (“I give” you money, weapons, a car, “so that you give” me the opportunity to leave and pick up the good). But it is difficult to find a person who has not gone mad, who would have declared such a compromise “fundamentally unacceptable” ... Our compromise with the bandits of German imperialism was similar to such a compromise. ” The operation to defeat the Moscow gangs and destroy Koshelkov became the “honor” of the Moscow police and the KGB, which, as we see, they honorably carried out.
The fight against crime in the regions of Russia
During the years of the Civil War, the Soviet police waged a tense struggle against crime throughout Russia. But not only to fulfill their direct duties to search for and detain criminals, to protect public order accounted for the first Soviet police. At times, they also entered into hostilities with the “whites”, performing the functions of regular army units. In the spring of 1919, when General Yudenich's troops were stationed at Petrograd, seven detachments of a total of 1500 bayonets were formed from the staff of the Petrograd police. Soviet police officers fought on the fronts of the Civil War in the Urals and the Volga region, in the North Caucasus, in other regions of Russia. Thus, the Orenburg police in full participated in the battles with the “white” in April-May 1919. The police carried out tasks to suppress anti-Soviet uprisings that were raised throughout the country by peasants dissatisfied with the Soviet authorities. Without going into discussions about whether the Bolsheviks' policy in the countryside was fair and justified, it should be noted that the police simply performed their task, which the Soviet government had set for them as service people. During the suppression of anti-Soviet demonstrations, the police suffered numerous losses, not in all cases its number could be quickly restored, especially at the expense of trained personnel. The police had no experience of serving in law enforcement agencies before the revolution; therefore, they had to learn both operational and investigative activities and the protection of public order in the course of their service. Not only the elimination of armed gangs, but also the protection of citizens' lives and property in these troubled years for Russia became the main task of the new law enforcement structure. So, 4 on April 1918, Moscow gangsters tried to rob citizens of their apartments. Yesterday’s workers entered into battle with them, and after the revolution the policemen, Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov, entered. Militiamen managed to destroy several gangsters, the rest fled. Policeman Shvyrkov died in a shootout, the second policeman Pekalov was fatally wounded. However, not a single apartment was robbed, and the civilians living in them remained alive and unharmed - at the cost of the lives of the dead policemen. One of the first heroes of the Soviet militia, Yegor Shvyrkov and Semyon Pekalov, were buried near the Kremlin wall.
In very difficult conditions, Don Don had to act. In addition to local criminal gangs and remnants of white and green squads, attacks on gangs that raided the territory of neighboring Ukraine became a real problem for Don policemen. So, in May - October 1921, the gangs that attacked the Don region became more active. They burned cars, robbed peasants, killed the inhabitants of the labor communes, including infants. In May, a gang of up to two hundred robbers appeared in the 1921 district in the Ilinsky and Glebovsky volosts of the Rostov district (now the territory of the Kushchevsky district of the Krasnodar Territory). The gangsters felt so at ease that they were preparing an attack on the 8 headquarters of the Rostov district militia stationed in the village of Ilyinka. But the police chief, K. Shevela, had learned in advance about the impending raid. The militiamen, together with the Red Army workers' battalion stationed at State Farm No. 7, decided to meet the gangsters and prevent them from attacking the village. Despite the fact that the bandits were much larger, and they had better armament, the courage and dedication of the police and Red Army men did their job - they managed to keep the gang near the village. During this time, reinforcements from the Rostov district military registration and enlistment office arrived in time to help the fighting militiamen and the Red Army soldiers, after which the attacked gang was destroyed. In September, 1921 was a major clash with a gang in the area of the Nesvetaevskoy parish of the Rostov district. There 80 horse bandits with two machine guns attacked a group of police intelligence, and then - in the area of the Generals Volost - a detachment to combat banditry. In the battle with the gangsters, eight policemen died, but the detachment managed to throw the gangsters outside the Don region. In October 1921, a large gang of up to five hundred people, commanded by one of Dubin, attacked the village of Ilyinka. The gang had fifty machine-gun carriages, two cars and a bomb. In the village of Ilyinka, bandits set about looting civilians and killing Soviet workers. Only after the approach of the detachment of the Rostov district militia and cavalry regiment of a special brigade of the First Cavalry Army managed to encircle and destroy the gangsters of Dubin. In addition to such large gangs, which acted not only on the basis of the desire for profit, but also on the basis of the ideological rejection of the Soviet power, smaller criminal groups operated in the Don region, hunted by robberies, thefts, and hooligan attacks on defenseless people.
By the way, it was very difficult to resist the bandits of the Soviet police in the first years of its existence. Sometimes the policemen did not even have firearms and cold weapons, and they had to go to apprehend dangerous criminals, armed with ordinary sticks. There were serious problems with uniforms and shoes, often policemen were given bast shoes and wooden shoes. In addition, it was necessary to solve issues with the preparation of personnel. Many policemen, especially from among the villagers, were illiterate, so in 1921, educational courses were organized for police officers to read, write and account. Thanks to the courses, illiteracy was eliminated among Soviet policemen, and already in 1923, it was decided to ban recruitment of illiterate citizens to the police service. Only by learning to read and write, a citizen worthy of other indicators could expect to be employed in the Soviet police. After the end of the Civil War, the militia was replenished with former Red Army men. The arrival of people in the militia who went through the war and were distinguished by great personal courage and good military training played a very positive role in strengthening the Soviet police. First of all, the quality of service and combat training of police officers improved, which immediately affected the effectiveness of the search and detention of dangerous gangs. Transferred to the police and security officers, also past civil.
Don remember the name of Ivan Nikitovich Hudozhnikov. A native of Lugansk, he was born in 1890 in a working-class family and after graduating from a four-year school in 1905, he became a student at a locomotive building plant. It was there that the Artists met the Bolsheviks. 1 May 1917 A young man joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party. Until 1919, he continued to work at the plant, and then went to the committees of the peasant poor. He served in the Cheka. After the release of Rostov, the artist was offered to go to work at the police station and head the criminal investigation subdivision of the Rostov and Nakhichevan Revkom. After a short time, Ivan Nikitovich headed the Rostov District Criminal Investigation Department. It is Khudozhnikov’s merit that is not only a serious blow to the criminal world, but also the establishment of order in the criminal search itself. Before the Artists came to the department, many of its employees drank, took bribes and in every way discredited the title of Soviet policemen. Having asked the party organs to send several experienced communists to help, the Artists quickly freed the Don threat officer from questionable cadres and set up his work. Thanks to joint activities with the security officers, the criminal investigation department launched an active work on the elimination of gangsters and felons who were operating in the Rostov district. In most cases, the artists personally supervised the ongoing detention of bandits. So, at the end of winter 1922 in Rostov-on-Don a dangerous gang appeared under the leadership of Vasily Govorov, “Vasi Kotelka”, as his accomplices called him. The bandits hunted down robberies and murders, acting with amazing cruelty. So, the “Kotelkovites” gouged out the eyes of their victims. They tracked down a gang of two operatives. Finally, Hudozhnikov and his colleagues managed to track down the bandits. They were on a brothel in nearby Novocherkassk. The raspberry assault lasted almost 12 hours. But, despite the desperate resistance of the gangsters who perfectly understood their fate in the event of detention, the operatives managed to take alive the leader of the gang - Vasya Kotelka himself, as well as his six accomplices. All of them were sentenced to death and shot. Almost a century has passed since the events described, but on Police Day, which almost everyone is accustomed to calling “Police Day”, it is impossible not to remind modern law enforcement officers and young people just choosing the life of a police officer for themselves, about the exploits of their colleagues in distant years Civil war Then the “Born of Revolution”, although faced with numerous problems - financial, personnel, and organizational, but even in these difficult conditions was able to perform the main task - to significantly reduce the merciless outburst of crime. Of course, hundreds of thousands of people also serve in the modern Russian police and other power structures, whose courage and sincerity make them worthy successors of their predecessors. It remains to wish the soldiers of law and order not to disappoint their fellow citizens, to fulfill their duties with honor and to do without losses.
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