Fontanka 16 : the tsars' secret police / Charles A. Ruud and Sergei A. Stepanov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruud, Charles A., 1933-

Contributor:

Stepanov, S. A.

Standardized Title:

Fontanka, 16. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russia. Departament polit︠s︡īi.

Russia.

Russia. Okhrannyi︠a︡ otdi︠e︡lenīi︠a︡--History.

Police--Russia--History.

Police.

Secret service--Russia--History.

Secret service.

Physical Description:

ix, 394 p., [16] p. of plates : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Fontanka sixteen

Place of Publication:

Montreal : Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From police headquarters at Fontanka 16 to the secret offices in major Russian post offices where specialists opened and read correspondence, the Okhranka blanketed the huge Russian empire with a network of secret agents and informers. In many cases they were involved in a desperate effort to track down terrorists before they could assassinate government officials and members of the imperial family. Charles Ruud and Sergei Stepanov have mined police archives, including Moscow's State Archive of the Russian Federation and the archives of the Hoover Institution, to produce this first post-Soviet look at the Okhranka's covert operations, which spread as far as Western Europe. In many ways Fontanka 16 reveals as much about the enemies of the tsars as the police who fought them. Although each side saw its cause as a struggle for good over evil, the authors show that the two sides strongly resembled one another in method, psychology, and morality. In this strange nether world of intrigue and deception, police agents often assisted revolutionaries and a number of former revolutionaries rose through the ranks of the secret police. The authors shed new light on the supposed anti-Semitism of the imperial government, as well as the origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

History, Tradition, Precedents

Political Investigation to 1825

Imperial Security Centres at Pontanka 16, 1826 to the 1870s

From the Third Section to the Department of Police

Structure, Methods, Agents

The Okhranka as a Compiler of Information

The Foreign Agency, 1884-1917

The Challenge of Quelling the Fighting Squads, 1906-1909

Double Agents and Dissidents

Azeff, the Super Agent

Whistle-blowers in the Ranks of the Okhranka

The Assassination of Stolypin

The Political Police and the Jewish Question

Protocols, Masons, and Liberals

The Tsarist Police and Pogroms

The Beilis Case and Damage Control

The Decline of the Okhranka

The Struggle for the Okhranka

Police Officials and Rasputin

Epilogue for the Okhranka

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [369]-386) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85530-1

9786612855306

0-7735-6745-3

OCLC:

1394872775