Humanitarian activities of the county police in the second half of the XIX– early XX centuries (on the example of the Vladimir province)

Law enforcement agencies have been and remain an important part of the Russian state system. The field of responsibility of the police authorities of the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries was extensive and diverse. It included issues of state, community and public administration, management in the field of economics, industry, transport, finance, control over compliance with laws and regulations, protection of personal rights and property, health care, social security, education, the spiritual sphere and monitoring the moral condition of the population. The article is devoted to the activities of the district police of the Vladimir province in the field of struggle for the physical and moral health of the population. This aspect is insufficiently covered in local-level research, so the author used archival materials from the Vladimir province to complement the image and the scale of the activities of local law enforcement agencies by the beginning of the XX century. Pokrovsky County was the most densely populated due to the high concentration of factory industry and workers. The research is based on the principles of historicism, reliability and scientific character, chronological and historical-systemic methods are used. Specific examples show the role of the county police in combating the spread of infectious diseases and drunkenness among the population, carried out in difficult conditions of active migration flows in cities and counties of the Vladimir province and an ever-growing number of residents. The staff of the Pokrovsky district police department, in addition to the functions of law enforcement and public peace, controlled the opening of hospitals, the provision of medical care, strictly monitored the referral of syphilis-infected residents to county hospitals for treatment, and fought against public drinking in villages and towns of the county. Statistics collected from the field by district police officers were sent to the provincial government, to statistical committees and became the basis for state and public decisions in the relevant areas.