Okhranka

(full name, Okhrannoe Otdelenie, Protection Department; prior to 1903, Department for the Protection of Public Security and Order), in tsarist Russia, a local agency of political investigation under the jurisdiction of the Police Department. The first Okhranki were established in St. Petersburg in 1866 and in Moscow and Warsaw in 1880. By 1914 there were 26 such agencies operating in provinces or oblasts. Between 1906 and 1914, there were ten regional Okhranki, each coordinating the work of Okhranki and provincial police administrations in several provinces. The Odessa regional Okhranka, for example, controlled three provinces, and the Moscow regional Okhranka, 12 provinces.

The Okhranka’s main function was to investigate revolutionary organizations and individual revolutionaries. Arrests and further investigations were carried out by the provincial police on the basis of material gathered by the Okhranki. The Okhranki had a large group of special agents—both detectives for “external observation” and secret agents “in the investigated milieu,” including informants and agents provocateurs who worked in revolutionary organizations. The main part of the Okhranka was the general office, which was subdivided into several “desks,” each having a separate function. From the late 19th century, the seven major Okhranki (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, and Tbilisi) had secret censorship departments at post offices, called black offices, which opened and inspected correspondence. The Moscow Okhranka claimed to be the organizer of political investigation for all Russia and the “methodological” center for political investigation. The Okhranki of the two capitals had special groups of detectives (the “flying” detachment in Moscow from 1897 and the “central” detachment in St. Petersburg from 1906) which operated throughout Russia, as well as special registration bureaus to verify the loyalty of all newcomers to the capital. The Okhranki were abolished after the February Revolution of 1917.