The Legal Basis for Providing the County Police Guards of the Russian Empire with Weapons (On the Example of the Voronezh Province)

Abstract

Since the establishment of the institute of the county police guard, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire has paid special attention to the issues of legal regulation of providing the ranks of this law enforcement institute with cold and firearms. This was caused, on the one hand, by the nature of the duties traditionally assigned to police officers, and on the other, by the conditions of socio-political instability in the state that developed at the beginning of the XX century. At the same time, the mentioned problems still remain poorly studied in the national historical and legal science. The chosen research topic is also updated in view of the upcoming one hundred and twenty-year anniversary of the establishment of the district police guard of the Russian Empire. The purpose of this study is to form a holistic scientific understanding of the development and main problems of legal regulation of the provision of weapons to one of the most numerous law enforcement institutions of the state in the period under study. The paper notes the special role of the Commission chaired by the commander of a Separate corps of Gendarmes V.A. Dedyulin in 1906 in the process of forming the necessary regulatory framework. The relationship between the underfunding of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire and the peculiarities of the regulatory legal regulation of the activities of the county police is shown. In conclusion, the author's periodization of the development of the legal basis for providing police guards with weapons is given.