Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 44

FROM UNREST TO DEMONSTRATIONS: THE POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES REGARDING MASS POLITICAL ACTIONS OF THE RADICAL YOUTH OF THE 1870S

Aleksei Rubtsov

St Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences
7 Petrozavodskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
European University at St Petersburg
6/1А Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
arubtsov()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: The paper discusses the formation of ideas of the imperial bureaucracy about the revolutionary movement of the 1870s. This issue is being investigated through the prism of the attitude of investigative bodies to mass political actions. These acts were a relatively new phenomenon and therefore largely unexpected for the authorities in the political space of the Russian Empire. In this regard, the formation of a unified strategy in relation to such manifestations was accompanied by a series of disputes and conflicts between the departments involved in the investigation. The author analyzes, on the one hand, the positions of officials of the prosecutor’s office—which earned a new status after the reform of 1864—and police officials on the other. Particular attention is paid to elucidating the role of prosecutors in shaping public policy regarding the radical movement, since the importance of legality as a factor in the imperial political system has been strengthened in the context of reformed proceedings. In the end, the study concludes that the conflict between departments involved in ensuring public security arose in conditions when a largely legal struggle of opinions in power became possible. Moreover, the conflict between the two institutions of power turned out to also be a search for a compromise that would suit both sides.

Keywords: mass political crime, unrest, investigative authorities, Russian bureaucracy.

To cite: Rubtsov A., ‘Ot besporyadkov k demonstratsiyam: interpretatsiya massovykh politicheskikh vystupleniy 1870-kh gg. rossiyskimi vlastyami’ [From Unrest to Demonstrations: The Policy of the Russian Authorities Regarding Mass Political Actions of the Radical Youth of the 1870s], Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 44, pp. 114–138.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2020-16-44-114-138

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/044/rubtsov.pdf