The South of the Russian Far East at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries in Gendarme Reports

Abstract

The study is based on previously unpublished documents stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Both are reports from gendarmerie officers who served in Vladivostok during the late 1890s — early 1910s. Their duty was to monitor political activities in the southern part of the Russian Far East. When describing the goals of gendarmerie surveillance south of the Amur River, the authors of these reports also shared their own views on the region: who lived in the southern part of the Priamurye Governor-Generalship, the differences between urban and rural populations, the level of political loyalty among the people, and what threats to political security existed there. These descriptions show how the political police officers perceived the territory under their control. Comparing reports from different periods (late 1890s to early 1910s) reveals how their views changed over time. By examining the biographies of the gendarme authors and their official correspondence, we can understand where they got their information about the Far East. These sources not only reveal how the political police viewed the region but also how their operations worked in different periods and the effectiveness of their work.