The guide to funds of the State Archive of the Irkutsk region as a source for studying the history of law enforcement bodies in the pre-revolutionary period

The authors study guidebook of 2017 on the funds of the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region as a source of information, show its features in comparison with previously published ones. The guidebook is the most complete guide to the composition and content of the SAIR funds. Its construction on the base of industry, degree of significance, chronology and alphabet allows researchers to identify the necessary funds, inventories and files, to study the activities of the judiciary, the features of hard labor and exile, the imprisonment of convicted criminals. The guide allows discovering new facets in the study of penitentiary institutions.