Verhun S. Gendarme police department of railways of Ukraine: organizational foundations and regional aspects of activities (1868 - 1917)

Based on the archive materials and a large array of the published and unpublished sources, this dissertation investigates the functioning of the institute of the railway transport gendarmerie of Ukraine. The main stages of development of the railway gendarme police offices (RGPO) and railway gendarme police departments (RGPD) in Ukraine as well as changes of their official responsibilities in accordance with the domestic political situation are determined. It is shown, that gendarmes were responsible for the keeping of rules by the passengers on the railway stations, adherence to the rules of conduct in the trains, passport control, combating organised crime and taking measures for crime prevention, ensuring a transportation security of state treasury by the railway of the Russian empire, safeguarding strategically important buildings in the railway exclusion zone, control after staffing of railway and railway workrooms, providing transportation safety and safeguarding of emperor's trains, combating and prevention of strikes of railway workers, fight against revolutionary movements, in particular Ukrainian national liberation movement, terrorism prevention on the railway, censorship control after an import of revolutionary and unreliable literature, if necessary engagement of the militarized guard as well as examination of trains in the night-time.