Search for the most effective ways to protect legal order during the civil war in Russia: formation and activity of police bodies of the main state formations

Introduction. The legal order as the ordering of public relations on the basis of law is one of the main elements of the state. The problem of its provision was actualized during the Civil War. The presence of a firm legal order meant the stability of the government, and also directly influenced its support from the population, stability in the rear and success at the front. An important role in ensuring the protection of legal order, along with ordinary and emergency bodies, was played by the police. Methods and materials. With the help of historical-legal, systematic, formal-legal and comparative-legal methods, the analysis of written sources was carried out, among which the main attention was paid to legislation and other official acts of the authorities of state formations during the Civil War, works and memoirs of its participants, as well as scientific works devoted to the study of this period. Results. The article shows that the most radical changes in the organization of the police were carried out by the Soviet government. The flexibility of the leadership in matters of ideology (without affecting the foundations of Marxist doctrine and the construction of socialist statehood in the country) ensured the effectiveness of the activities of the Soviet law enforcement agencies and the significant contribution of the Soviet police to restoring elementary order and countering rampant crime on the territory of the RSFSR.