On the History of the Legal Regime of Martial Law in the Russian Empire

Abstract

The article examines the development of the regulatory and legal framework in preparation for a prospective war in the Russian Empire. The authors emphasize that all security-related lawmaking in the Russian Empire was grounded in and evolved exclusively on the principles of safeguarding the autocratic system. It was precisely on this basis that efforts to establish the legal regime of martial law were developed. The study draws upon a wide range of sources, among which archival and documentary materials occupy a prominent place, some of which are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. The necessity of establishing a legal regime of martial law was driven by the intensification of the international situation that was leading the world toward a global war. The work, energetically initiated at the beginning of the reign of Alexander III, slowed considerably toward the end of his rule. This was primarily due to interdepartmental contradictions, as the process required a clear delineation of powers and effective coordination among the War and Naval Ministries, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, and the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nevertheless, a counterintelligence regime, a regime of secrecy, and a number of other measures were introduced in the country, without which the functioning of a martial law regime would have been impossible. The work was ultimately completed only in 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War.