Policemen supervision for the second half of the sixth half of the XIX-beginning of the XX centuries

Introduction: in modern Russia, the Old Believers freely profess the Orthodox faith and are not discriminated against by the state, in contrast to the period of the Russian Empire and the dominance of the official Orthodox religion recognized by the authorities. The subject of the study in this article is the activity of the local police of the Russian Empire to supervise the bearers of religious teachings on the old rites of the Orthodox Church. Materials and Methods: sources of research are the normative legal acts contained in the Complete Collection of Laws, the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire and archival documents studied through general scientific and special research methods. Results: analysis of legislation and objective reasons that influenced the change in the policy of tolerance in relation to the schismatics, made it possible to establish that since the middle of the 19th century the measures for implementing general police supervision for the Old Believers have acquired a different character. Discussion and Conclusions: under the influence of liberal ideas, economic and military reasons, the implementation of the program for the relaxation of social contradictions by the end of the era of autocracy, the police did not discriminate against the Old Believers, who in their civil rights did not differ from the Orthodox population.