The watchful state : security police and opposition in Russia, 1906-1917
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The watchful state : security police and opposition in Russia, 1906-1917
Northern Illinois University Press, c2004
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-296) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Why did the imperial Russian government fail to prevent revolution in 1917? Were its security policies flawed? This broadly researched study of Russia's security police investigates the government's efforts to maintain order as it struggled against political opposition and threats of violence during the last decade before the Revolution. Historian Jonathan Daly brings to life the men who, often with reformist intentions, took on the task of defending Russia against political dissent and revolution from within.
The Watchful State reveals how the security police matched wits with revolutionary activists under Russia's first constitutional government, from 1906 until the collapse of order in 1917. The secret police kept a watchful eye on a large number of the radical political activists who threatened the state order. Such constant scrutiny enabled the secret police frequently to disrupt plots against the government, to set snares to trap conspirators, and to hold the workers' movement within bounds.
The security police rarely harassed liberal and moderate activists during the constitutional era, though the regular police administration was not so restrained. The two institutions of law enforcement worked together, forming a security system with one primary goal: to thwart antigovernment forces seeking to undermine the political status quo.
Countless times, Russia narrowly escaped breakdowns of order, thanks to the intervention of the police who thwarted political assassinations, troop mutinies, and urban unrest. Yet security police activities were not without cost to the established order. As the educated public expanded and an awareness of civil society grew, tolerance for secretive and often intrusive security apparatus waned. In its battle against its revolutionary adversaries, the late imperial government lost the broader struggle for the hearts and minds of Russians.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Policing the Constitutional Order in 1906
2. Revolution's End
3. Watershed: The Azef Affair
4. The Apogee of the Watchful State
5. A Moralist Running the Police Apparatus
6. The Security Police in the First World War
7. Collapse of the Watchful State
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"