The Establishment of Criminal Investigation Police in the Province of the Don Cossack Host (1870 to 1918)

Every year, on November 5, criminal investigation officers are honored in Russia, which is timed to coincide with an event that occurred in 1918, when the Central Criminal Investigation Department was established as part of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR. This tradition originated in the Soviet period, and is continuously honored in the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation. At the same time, criminal investigation originated in the pre-Soviet period, and studying the history of the detective police of the Russian Empire allows us to form a more objective view of the domestic law enforcement system. After the dissolution of the tsarist police in March 1917, the future criminal investigation department underwent reorganization, its units were retained due to the special value of full-time undercover officers who continued to fight crime. The prepared scientific article examines in detail the experience of the formation of detective units and departments in the territory of the Donskoy Army Region, which is valuable for the history of the state and law of Russia and internal affairs bodies.