The functions of the criminal investigation department of the Russian empire (1908-1917): interrelation of preliminary investigation and detection

N the article there has considered the issue about the interrelation between the functions of preliminary investigation and detection in the activity of the criminal investigation department of the Russian Empire through an extensive range of archived and literary sources. The article author emphasizes that the definition of criminal investigation departments by the Law “On the organization of investigation part” of 1908 as units of the general police, despite the assignment of the functions of de- tection in criminal cases, and it led to their formation and development as agencies in charge of preliminary investigation. Attempts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, discussed in the issued “Instructions to the ranks of investigation departments” in 1910 with the purpose to limit the competence of the criminal investigation department by secret detection, entered in the contradiction with the provisions of the Statute of Criminal Proceedings of 1864. With regard to the regulation of preliminary investigation and examination the Charter defined the detection as an auxiliary means of the criminal process. In the practice of investigation departments after the publication of the “Instructions” the secret detection began to transform into a full- fledged function aimed at solving the complex task of prevention, suppression and investigation of offences under ordinary law. As a result the criminal investigation department of the Russian Empire combined becomes virtually independent func- tions of preliminary investigation and detection. However, the legal perpetuation of their interrelation in the law, as the main (preliminary investigation) and additional (detection), led to the formation as the key form of prosecution of offences under ordinary law in the practice of “police preliminary investigation”.