THE RUSSIAN PARTITION 71picture is to be believed, the chinovnik, the 'bureaucrat', the 'Inspector-
General', was a figure of fun in Russian society, especially among the intelli-
gentsia. But for most of the population, he was also a figure to be feared, and
respected. In the Russian tradition, to have risen through the ranks of the
Tsarist service was a sign of social success. In the Polish tradition, it was a sign
of servility. The Polish nobles were used to running their own estates and their
own affairs, and to electing their own officials. Quite apart from the disabilities
placed on Roman Catholics, and from the later policy of Russification, few self-
respecting Poles were naturally disposed either to serve in the bureaucracy or to
heed its commands. Many historians would agree that the cardinal vice of the
Russian bureaucracy was to create an unbridgeable gulf between the governing
class and the governed. Nowhere was this more true than in the Western
Region.
The Russian police system was inimitably elaborate, overlapping the
competence of both civil and military authorities. The civil Gendarmerie was
supplemented by special formations of military police, and in the late nineteenth
century by the Cossack police regiments. From the accession of Nicholas I, all
their activities were supervised by the Third Department of the Tsar's Private
Chancery, which was the employer of the so-called Ochrana or 'secret police'.
The Third Department's terms of reference were contained in the Edict of 3 July
1826:
- All orders and all reports in every case belonging to the higher police.
- Information about the various sects and schisms which exist in the State.
- Reports about discoveries of false banknotes, coins, documents, etc...
- Information about all persons placed under police supervision...
- Exile, distribution, and residence of all suspected and noxious individuals;
- Superintendence and management of all places of incarceration.
- All regulations and orders concerning foreigners who reside in Russia, or who enter
or leave the state. - Reports about all occurrences without exception.
- All statistical information which has police pertinence...^8
In all cases of serious disturbance or political subversion, the civil courts could
be strengthened by the use of military tribunals. It is not surprising, therefore,
that the Police Service attracted the most ambitious individuals, and was itself
regarded as an elite branch of the public service. In Alexei Arakchaev
(1769-1834) under Alexander I, Benckendorff and Orlov under Nicholas I, and
K. P. Pobedonetsov under Alexander III, it produced several of the Empire's
most powerful men and of the Tsar's most intimate advisers. Its powers were
all-prevailing, and limited only by the energy and ingenuity of its countless
agents. In time, it learned how to invent the problems which it was supposed to
solve. Working on the fail-safe principle of provokatsiya (provocation), it
fomented conspiracies in order to break them, and organized trade unions in
order to penetrate them. Although it operated throughout the Empire, there are
sound reasons why special vigilance was needed in the Western provinces,