Chiefs of the Gendarme District in Siberia: Social Portrait

Abstract

The Siberian gendarme district existed longer than all other gendarme districts in the Russian Empire - almost 70 years, and was liquidated at the beginning of the 20th century. Since there are no research projects aimed at the study of the social portrait of the leaders of this district until now, this problem was chosen as the focus of this article. The study is based on an analysis of the personnel and service records of gendarme officers kept in archives, many of them are newly discovered and published for the first time, and orders to the servicemen of the Gendarmerie Corps and legislative acts of the central government. The article concludes by arguing that in the entire history of the district only ten people held the position of the Chief, and the average term of their office was 5 years and 8 months. They were all middle-aged people, professional military, who for various reasons transferred to the gendarmerie service, for whom it was the main source of income. For all ten persons who held the post of district gendarmerie chief in Siberia, it was both the peak and the last stage of their gendarmerie career, the work associated with this post they carried out diligently and fulfilled all required duties.