Organizational and legal bases of activity of penitentiary bodies and establishments in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian empire

The article is focused on the consideration of the basis of the penal enforcement legislation of the XIX century of the organization of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire during its stay under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Materials and Methods: the study was based on normative legal acts of the pre-revolutionary period, periodicals and documents of the national archive of the Republic of Tatarstan. The article applies the dialectical method of cognition, comparative historical and formal legal methods. Results:. the article deals with the activity on transformation of the prison system. Special attention is paid to the creation of the Main Prison Administration as a structural unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is the supreme controlling and administrative authority that directly managed the places of deprivation of liberty. Tendencies of improving the penitentiary legislation in the nineteenth century were considered. Discussion and Conclusions: the author notes that a centralized prison management structure was established in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, headed by the General Prison Administration. The transfer of the penitentiary system in 1895 from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Justice remains a controversial issue.