Provision of sanitary standards by the gendarmerie railway police of the Russian Empire in the late XIX-early XX centuries.

Kolpakov Petr Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-1600-9937 PhD in History Senior Lecturer, Department of Russian History, Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 1kolpakov1@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

The historical context of the problem of ensuring sanitary standards on the railways of Russia

The problems of protecting the health and life of the population have historically been one of the key state priorities. This state of affairs was typical for the Russian Empire during the period considered in this article.

The total mortality rate in Russia at the end of the 19th century averaged 35.5 per 1,000 people. One of the important causes of high mortality was the widespread spread of acute infectious diseases. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid and typhoid fever, dysentery, smallpox, childhood infections, malaria, and influenza were constantly raging. The spread of infectious diseases was literally a national disaster that caused incalculable damage to the health and well-being of the people ^{[1, pp. 215-216]}.

Cholera caused particularly severe damage to Russia. According to official data from the Medical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 4,837,236 cholera patients were identified in Russia during the 19th century, and 1,984,049 people died from it. During the epidemic of 1892-1895, 801,614 people fell ill and 381,100 died ^{[2, p. 67]}.

In the context of the epidemic, the need for police protection of order increased. This was determined not only by the need to take quarantine measures, but also to pacify the riots and lynching of those responsible for the spread of the deadly disease. The cholera epidemic of the 90s of the XIX century was full of tragic events. N.S. Leskov wrote: "When cholera appeared in our country in the summer of 1892, at the very end of the nineteenth century, there was immediately a disagreement about what to do. The doctors said they should kill the comma, but the people thought they should kill the doctors. It should be added that the people not only "thought" this way, but they also tried to put it into action. Several doctors who tried to kill the comma for the best benefit of the cause were themselves killed" ^{[3, p. 24]}.

Cholera began to be called a comma after the publication in 1884 by the German bacteriologist R. Koch of a report on the results of an expedition during which the spread of cholera in India was investigated. As part of this scientific work, the scientist described the properties of a comma-shaped bacterium. It was given the name Kommabacillus cholere (from Latin comma – comma) ^{[4, p. 24]}.

In the 19th century, rail transport made significant changes in human life. The ability to travel huge distances along the "cast iron" has greatly changed the perception of time and space. In Russia during the 19th century, railway transport went from a dubious curiosity, the expediency of investing in which was questioned by many representatives of the political elite, to the locomotive of the economy, which united economic centers into an integrated system and provided related industries with orders. A special social environment developed around the railways, which was characterized by the crowded and superficial contacts of passengers. Railway stations, station buffets and carriages in these conditions were a favorable environment for the spread of infectious diseases.

The problem of organizing sanitary and medical services on the railways was first seriously identified during the construction of the "chugunka" between St. Petersburg and Moscow. However, it was not related to protecting the life and health of passengers, but to preventing the spread of contagious diseases among workers working in difficult conditions and providing them with first aid in case of injury. Medical care during the construction of the railway between the two capitals was carried out in ten "booths"-infirmaries opened in 1843 ^{[5, p. 159]}. It is noteworthy that during this landmark construction for domestic railway transport, the first experience was gained in organizing the service of gendarmes within steel highways ^{[6, pp. 80-87]}.

In the process of development in the sanitary service on the railways of the Russian Empire, two main directions stood out: medical and sanitary and veterinary and sanitary supervision ^{[7, p. 362]}. In 1906, the Russian Railways Management Committee established the Institute of Sanitary Doctors ^{[8, p. 127]}.

Special attention in the system of sanitary and epidemiological control on the railways was given to the supervision of buffets. High demands were placed on the quality of food and cleanliness in the places of passenger catering by the charter of the Russian Railways: "All edibles, dishes and drinks must be fresh, of the best quality and properly prepared… The servants should be in sufficient numbers, have decent clothes and be helpful." However, practice often differed significantly from the requirements, and these regulations were often not followed ^{[8, p. 128]}.

The railway gendarmerie was involved in monitoring compliance with sanitary standards. The imputation of sanitary supervision functions to the transport police was determined by the danger of the rapid spread of infectious diseases across the territory of the empire covered by the railway network.

The role of the gendarmerie railway police in the fight against the cholera epidemic in the late XIX–early XX century.

An important area of official activity of the ranks of the railway gendarmerie was the circumvention of the entrusted section of the "chugunka". The inspection of the station made it possible to detect unattended cargoes that could become the object of criminal attention of "dashing people". Visiting residential buildings on the territory adjacent to the railway – criminals sheltered by workers. At the train station, a gendarme could surprise a bookseller who was secretly distributing revolutionary literature. The implementation of the bypass was also important in terms of ensuring sanitary safety. For example, railway police officers were instructed in the spring, during snowmelt, to "achieve the greatest possible cleanliness and serviceability in the maintenance of station buildings, courtyards, retreating places" to pay serious attention to the establishment of proper supervision by railway employees, first of all, it is imperative "not to lose sight of wells <...> are there any garbage near them, dirty snow from the descent of which water pollution can occur" ^{[9, l. 21]}. The relevance of such a measure was determined by the critical importance of preventing the outbreak of an epidemic. Cholera infection occurred through the use of contaminated water when drinking, washing, bathing and washing dishes.

It should be noted that the fight against infectious diseases within the railways was not limited to bypassing the entrusted areas by the ranks of the gendarmerie police. At the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, the fight against dangerous infections was mainly carried out by medical and police measures, which determined in detail the actions of gendarmes aimed at preventing and localizing epidemics. Timely detection of patients, their isolation and transfer to medical institutions, monitoring of the operational situation and ensuring law and order during sanitary and epidemiological measures were under the jurisdiction of the gendarmerie railway police ^{[10, p. 192]}.

In accordance with the "Rules on taking measures to stop cholera and plague when they appear inside the Empire", highly approved on August 11, 1903, the local authorities notified the Minister of the Interior about the revealed facts of cholera and plague diseases. Railway sanitary and executive commissions were created to prevent and combat epidemics on steel highways ^{[7, p. 383]}. To participate in the development of the necessary measures by the commissions, a representative of the gendarmerie railway police was included in their composition ^{[7, p. 397]}.

In conditions of the spread of the deadly disease, the authorities could establish quarantine in certain territories. Paragraph 27, approved on August 19, 1903 by the chairman of the most highly established commission on measures to prevent and combat plague infection, A.P. Oldenburgsky, "Rules for sanitary and executive commissions on measures to prevent and combat cholera and plague" granted provincial sanitary and executive commissions the right to establish cordons of individual houses and farms, and in cases of extreme necessity – villages. However, both law enforcement in general and sanitary supervision within the railways had significant features. Isolation and cessation of movement along a single section of the chugunka could paralyze the movement of passengers and cargo over a considerable distance. As a result, paragraph 29 of the above-mentioned rules established that the territories of railways within the exclusion zone had to be left outside the cordon ^{[7, pp. 394-395]}.

If, in the case of the quarantine cordon, the task of the local police was to prevent possible carriers of diseases from entering the territory defined by the authorities (note that this task was not always solved effectively), then the railway gendarmes performed the opposite mission: it was necessary to remove infected people from the "pig iron" as soon as possible in order to prevent the spread of the disease. In difficult situations, railway hospitals could exhaust the ability to receive patients, which required immediate action by the provincial authorities, who bore the burden of unloading railways from infected people. So, for example, in relation to the Medical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated June 15, 1892, sent under the signature of the State Secretary of the department (in the future Minister - from 1889 to 1895) I.N. Durnovo to the Moscow governor, it was indicated that with a significant number of cholera cases on the railways, the isolation rooms available at the stations may to be insufficient. In connection with this circumstance, the city hospitals located near the stations had to receive cholera patients without delay, who were delivered by order of the railway authorities ^{[11, L. 45]}.

To increase the effectiveness of sanitary measures, railway gendarmes were given the right to bring to justice violators of "rules and regulations established in due course to combat the cholera epidemic" in an administrative manner. The Committee of Ministers, by a regulation dated July 10, 1892, allowed the heads of the gendarmerie police departments of the railways to determine the punishment of the guilty "not exceeding that specified in Article 102 of the Statute on Punishments imposed by Magistrates," that is, to arrest for a period not exceeding a month or to recover funds in the amount of up to one hundred rubles ^{[12, l. 138]}. The role of the gendarmerie railway police in countering the epidemic threat was not limited to assisting special medical and sanitary services. The railway gendarmerie, which had extensive powers to identify and suppress violations, as well as the ability to apply legal sanctions, could act independently if the circumstances of the spread of a dangerous disease required it.

The clerical correspondence of the gendarmerie police departments of the railways contains the results of inspections of compliance with sanitary standards in the assigned areas, carried out by gendarmerie non-commissioned officers on the instructions of the department commanders. Gendarmerie officials made sure that there were rooms for isolating cholera patients; doctors examined residential buildings located near the railway infrastructure.

An example of generalizing the results of such an inspection is the report of a non-commissioned officer of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Moscow Gendarmerie Police Department of Railways, who investigated the sanitary condition at the Denisovo station site on January 13, 1911, according to the order of the department dated October 17, 1910.:

"1) There is no room at the station in case a passenger gets sick with cholera, for this it would be necessary to have an ambulance car where the patient could be placed, it would be desirable to have one of the employees trained in the medical office for sanitary affairs at hand to care for patients before the arrival of a doctor, since there is unlikely to be at the station such an independent person to take care of the patient. Medical care can only be provided by Vyazniki station.

2) Although there is a paramedic and a conductor on the trains, it would be desirable that a doctor be appointed to accompany the trains, who could immediately identify the disease and immediately provide help.

3) Monitoring of apartments and employees – it is necessary to conduct an examination by a district doctor twice a month, especially those employed by the road service. Although there are medical detours, but this is done with trains so that trains on the line do not stop at each building, which is why they remain overlooked as buildings, as well as employees of the track service.

4) Passengers traveling from an infected area must be taken to wagons at the rear of the train and isolated from unauthorized passengers and given to the conductor, a paramedic for observation, if a doctor is not appointed for this, for more successful communication about the passage of passengers from an area infected with cholera, record their addresses at the boarding point or further at long-term points transfers, and report directly to the police and medical center where the passenger should go.

<…>

13) Cargo coming from a contagious area should be subjected to medical examination <...>.

14) Employees should be warned how to behave when someone is ill with cholera from others.

15) Employees treat medical care with confidence, some of the employees were vaccinated against cholera last year, but in villages they usually rely on God.

16) Rats are not expected yet, and insects, such as cockroaches and bedbugs, are mainly found in buildings occupied by the service of the way, in booths and barracks. There are drugs available in Pharmacies to destroy all insects and rats.

17) Clean, if necessary, from various debris pits constantly filled with water near the bathhouse and warehouse, where laundry is done." ^{[9, l. 1-3 vol.]}.

Participation of railway gendarmes in veterinary supervision

At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, railway construction became the locomotive that drove the domestic economy. Chugunka provided large orders to related industries, opened up new opportunities for cargo transportation and, in particular, for supplying cities with food. As often happens, the advantages of innovations are accompanied by threats of their use. Products that deteriorated during improper storage during transportation, especially meat of farm animals transported by rail, caused the spread of dangerous diseases if they were consumed by the population.

The prevention of this threat required the authorities to take measures to organize supervision. For example, on July 30, 1910, the Moscow governor V.F. Dzhunkovsky, in connection with the increasing cases of stale meat entering Moscow markets from provincial cities, the consumption of which posed a danger to life and health, ordered to establish a veterinary and sanitary inspection at the stations. Doctors on mission were provided with special certificates, with which they had to apply to railway gendarmes for assistance in carrying out sanitary control. In addition, one district supervisor was assigned to each doctor ^{[7, p. 381]}.

Also, together with the railway gendarmerie police, veterinarians assigned to inspect cattle transported by pig iron carried out control of the movement of farm animals in order to prevent epizootics – the spread of infectious diseases among them. ^{[7, p. 418]}. The assistance of the gendarmes was necessary to establish the places where the goods of sanitary and veterinary interest were located, as well as, if necessary, to force violators of sanitary norms to comply with quarantine restrictions on the movement of livestock, seizure and destruction of batches of spoiled meat. Obviously, such measures caused losses to cargo owners and contradicted their commercial interests, which could cause resistance.

Supervision of the transportation of the bodies of the deceased

The gendarmerie police paid special attention to the transportation of the bodies of the deceased by rail. There have been cases when the movement of the deceased became a cause of public order disturbance. On March 26, 1907, the headquarters of the gendarmerie corps sent a circular order to the gendarmerie police departments of the railways, according to which, in the case of sending coffins with the bodies of the deceased from the entrusted station, it was necessary to telegraph the gendarmerie rank to the destination station, and to the latter – to transmit information to the local general police. The order was triggered by a precedent related to the failure to ensure public safety in conditions of a crowd of ordinary people at the station: "Recently, the body of a deceased prominent politician arrived by rail in one of the big cities for burial. Many people, including high-ranking officials, arrived at the station to meet the body and escort it to the cemetery. The local general police, not informed by the ranks of the gendarmerie police, did not take timely preventive measures to protect order during the movement of the procession through the streets" ^{[7, pp. 414-415]}.

The issue of transferring the bodies of passengers who died on the road was directly related to ensuring the protection of public health and life. Those who died on the way were handed over to a gendarme non-commissioned officer at the nearest station, about which the latter gave the train commandant a certificate on a form for receiving the body and organized the escort of the deceased for burial ^{[10, p. 190]}. The chiefs of the gendarmerie police departments of the railways demanded strict observance of the specified procedure regarding the movement of the bodies of those who died from cholera from subordinates. According to the circular of the Moscow Gendarmerie Police Department of Railways dated July 24, 1892, No. 1872, the heads of departments were to "freely receive from railway agents those who died of cholera and transfer them to the general police for burial on the exact basis of the circular order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated March 18, 1875 for No. 25, with the transfer of corpses to be carried out by railways not otherwise than by preliminary disinfection, according to the rules established by the Medical Council and in tightly packed coffins" ^{[11, l. 43]}.

Control of the sanitary condition of the premises for the detention of prisoners of war

During the First World War, the railway gendarmerie, along with police functions, assumed the burden of performing various tasks related to countering the destructive activity of the enemy within the steel highways. The gendarmes assisted the counterintelligence departments of the military department in identifying and searching for German, Austrian and Turkish agents ^{[13, pp. 510-524]}. The railways used the labor of prisoners of war. The officers and lower ranks of the enemy armies needed not only to protect, but also to organize their way of life, creating conditions for maintaining health. The railway gendarmerie inspected the places where prisoners of war were housed.

For example, on November 24, 1915, the head of the Smolensk branch of the Moscow Gendarmerie Police Department of Railways, Lieutenant Colonel Klefner, checked the sanitary condition of the barracks in the area of the Rigo-Oryol railway and reported to his superiors that the prisoners of war "almost all completely got sick, some were sick and had become emaciated and literally starved due to insufficient monetary leave for their maintenance (25 kopecks per day per person) means that an outbreak of starvation typhus is possible among them, which is extremely unsafe for the surrounding railway population.".  The gendarmerie authorities, in connection with the revealed violations of sanitary order, instructed the ranks of the Vitebsk branch, in whose area of responsibility the above-mentioned barracks where prisoners of war were held, to check it. The severity of the issue of the detention of prisoners of war did not allow the gendarmes to limit themselves to an act criticizing the measures taken. It was necessary "to find out all the conditions of life of prisoners of war on the spot and immediately, together with the appropriate agents of the road, take the most energetic measures to stop the sanitary irregularities found" ^{[14, l. 21-21 vol.]}.

On the instructions of the gendarme chief, a commission was formed. It included the ranks of the railway board, the transport police, and the sanitary service: the head of the track service, engineer K. A. Bortlevich, the head of the Vitebsk gendarmerie department, Colonel V.I. Smirnitsky, the sanitary doctor A. A. Sokolov, the head of the 8th section of the track, engineer A. D. Gorodsky and the doctor of the 10th section, S. I. Steiner.

It was established that a hundred prisoners of war (Magyars and Germans) were housed in a new barrack built for the needs of a medical observation post. They occupied half of the room with an area of 36 square fathoms at a height of five yards. The bunks were arranged in two tiers. There were no bedding, but the prisoners were given straw and twine to make mats. The air in the barracks was clean during the inspection – there were vents in the windows for ventilation. In general, the commission members assessed the room as "...bright, dry and sufficiently heated." The kitchen was located in a separate room, free of housing, where there were two boilers, one for cooking food, the other for boiling water.

To eliminate the shortcomings, they were noted: "To arrange a tap in the boiler for boiling water. Arrange a tub with a faucet and a mug for cooling and storing boiled water – with a capacity of up to 10 buckets. Put 5 portable washbasins. For lighting, complete hanging lamps, approximately one for each room" ^{[14, L. 26]}. It is impossible to ignore the noticeable discrepancy in the results of the inspections of the barracks conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Kefner and the commission, which found a significantly smaller number of shortcomings, the nature of which, moreover, did not arouse fears about an outbreak of infectious diseases. It is doubtful that the commission could have gone to a direct distortion of the information, taking into account the likelihood of rechecking its work in such a case. However, taking into account the inclusion of members of the railway board with the authority to dispose of material resources, there were opportunities to eliminate manifestations of gross sanitary violations in order to avoid their inclusion in the act.

Conclusions

The danger of the spread of deadly epidemics in conditions of intensive railway passenger traffic has determined the need to involve the gendarmerie in the supervision of sanitary order within the "pig iron". The ranks of the gendarmerie railway police played a significant role in identifying violations that could lead to the outbreak of an epidemic. An important area of the railway gendarmes' official activity was to bypass the entrusted section of steel highways and inspect the infrastructure for deviations from established sanitary rules. The supply of food to cities, in particular, meat by rail, led to the imputation of the railway police to assist doctors in conducting sanitary inspections, if necessary, to force violators to comply with decisions on the seizure of livestock, the destruction of meat shipments.

During the First World War, gendarmes carried out inspections of premises intended for the detention of prisoners of war involved in repair and construction work within the railways.

The railway gendarmerie performed various functions of general and political police, assisted the military department in carrying out counterintelligence tasks within the steel highways. However, the depth of the socio-political crisis that brought down the Russian Empire in 1917 did not allow the gendarmes to achieve their main goal – to preserve statehood and the monarchy. At the same time, the absence of precedents for outbreaks of epidemics on railways that would pose a threat to the health and life of the population on a global scale allows us to conclude that the direction of sanitary supervision within the limits of imputed responsibility was implemented by the railway police quite effectively.

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