Police activity in Irkutsk province in the late XIX - early XX centuries

The article is devoted to the study of issues of the formation of the police service in the regions of our country, due to the specifics of the implementation of legislative acts in remote areas of the Russian state and the presence of additional conditions for the work of the police bodies of the Irkutsk province due to the fact that this region was a place of criminal and political exile. The results of the study made it possible to determine the factors of lagging in police reforms and transformations in Siberia in the 19th - early 20th centuries and in the Irkutsk province in particular, to show the heterogeneous structure of police bodies in the period from the beginning of their formation to the revolutionary events of 1917. The conclusion is substantiated about the influence of insufficient material support for the activities of police structures, the remoteness of the Irkutsk province from the European part of Russia, the presence of exiles and the opposition of local officials and influential persons to the changes that turned out to be decisive in the formation of police structures in the 19th - early 20th centuries. It is noted that there is a delay in increasing the efficiency of the activities of police officers in the Irkutsk province and their release from administrative and economic functions in comparison with similar structures in the European part of Russia.