NIKOLAI RIDINGER: DAILY ROUTINE OF PETERSBURG CHIEF OF POLICE (1867-1883)

Abstract

For the first time the Petersburg period of service of N. A. Ridinger (1825-1894) is studied on the basis of archive materials; he was a brilliant representative of nobility, the chief of police. N. A. Ridinger was an officer, a veteran of the Caucasian campaign of 18531854, who after the wound continued his service as a chief of police in Kaluga, Oryol, Yelets, Petersburg and rose to the rank of general-major. During his Petersburg period of service on the posts of Suburban chief of police and superintendent of Saint-Petersburg uyezd police (1867-1883) he made a contribution to police reform and also wrote an interesting essay about the workmen settlement Sestroretsk and the book about Russian folklore. The method of reckoning polyfactor approach in the research has been more and more widely used in present-day historical science in Russia. One of its components is a personality factor which affects the existing events. This fact can be fully referred to the personality of Nikolai Ridinger, who in 1867-1883 held the posts of Suburban chief of police and of superintendent of Saint-Petersburg uyezd police on the eve of forming pre-conditions for the revolutionary situation in Russia. There exists a possibility to trace the process of Saint-Petersburg police reforming and the attitude to the rising protest of the working class in the period of its formation by the example of his service. Characterizing his personal qualities it is possible to mention his humanism in relation to different sections of the population. He was sympathetic to disastrous situation of the workers. He saw the cause of the workers' poverty in the abuse of factory administration. Still he was responsible in his service, demanding to his subordinates and he could not permit the workers' strike. He chose the dialogue with the workers and he summoned the authorities to the same reaction.