The Fight of the Terek Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia against Banditry in the 1920s (Based on Materials from the Mozdok Region of North Ossetia-Alania and the Stavropol Territory)

The relevance of the study is due to the need to study and borrow positive experience of the police, as well as the weak scientific development of the topic. The article, based on archival documents, reveals the main prerequisites and factors, as well as the methods of struggle of the Soviet police in the 1920s. in Stavropol and Terek with banditry. The practical innovativeness of the research was expressed in the possibility of using its results in the reconstruction of the organs of internal affairs history, as well as regional history in the 1920s. The methodological potential of the study is revealed in the possibility of using its material at the level of educational institutions, when conducting classes in the history of Russia, in regional history. The scientific novelty consisted in the creation, based on archival materials, of the Soviet workers’ and peasants’ militia in the early 1920s, as well as the main aspects of its activities, taking into account the specifics of the North Caucasus region in the first steps of Soviet power. The results of the study indicate that the Soviet workers’ and peasants’ militia initially emerged as a body of political power. From its creation in 1917 until the end of the 1920s. Soviet policemen fought against banditry, which meant both political groups - individual parts of the White Guard, and criminal elements, which flourished in the North Caucasus region during the NEP period. The organized fight against banditry was hampered by both staffing deficiencies and the rise of organized crime towards the end of the decade due to political and social changes in the country.