Trepov F.F. the Chief of the Police in 1866-78

Categories / City Administration/Personalia
TREPOV Fedor Fedorovich (1809-1889, St. Petersburg), statesman, cavalry general (1878), adjutant-general (1867). The father of D.F. Trepov. In 1826-27 he studied at the Central Engineering school in St. Petersburg. In 1828-31 he worked for the Department of state assets. Since 1831 Trepov had been in the military service, took part in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830-31. In 1860-61 he was the Chief of the Police in Warsaw, in 1863-66, Chief of the Police General of the Kingdom of Poland (in 1861 and 1863 he was twice wounded in the head during the "disorders"). In 1866-73 the Chief of St. Petersburg Police (appointed to this post after D.V. Karakozov's attempt to assassinate emperor Alexander II) and a member of empress Maria Fedorovna's Establishments Board of Trustees, in 1873-78 the first head of St. Petersburg administration. During his administration the water police was established, the wages of police employees were increased, and the staff of the capital city police was reformed. Trepov tried to combat hard drinking, and clear the city of the beggary and cadgers (for which purpose the doss-houses and sewing workshops for poor women were founded), he also organized public readings in Salt Settlement (coined as Trepov's university). Trepov enjoyed the absolute trust and favour of emperor Alexander II, though citizens didn't like him because of his despotism and undue familiarity (there were rumours about his taking bribes). Trepov constantly engaged police in supressing students' disturbances ("battle" at the Technological Institute in January of 1874, for instance), and severely punished the participants of the demonstration at Kazan Cathedral in 1876 (see Kazan Cathedral demonstrations). In July of 1877 when visiting the House of detention, Trepov ordered to birch political prisoner A.P. Bogolyubov who hadn't taken his hat off at the approach of the Chief of the Police (an unprecedented case in the Russian history); in response to which, on January 24, 1878 V.I. Zasulich shot and wounded Trepov. After Zasulich was acquitted by the jury trial, Trepov had resigned from his post. In 1881 he was elected a member of the committee established by the chief of the city administration N.M. Baranov for the consideration of the capital urban living problems. Trepov spent the last years of his life in Kiev.

Works: The All-loyal Report of Adjutant-general Trepov on the Administration of St. Petersburg City and City Police from 1866 through 1876. St. Petersburg, 1876.

References: Высоцкий И. П. Санкт-Петербургская столичная полиция и градоначальство, 1703-1903: Крат. ист. очерк. СПб., 1903. С. 161-226; Длуголенский Я. Н. Военно-гражданская и полицейская власть Санкт-Петербурга, 1703-1917. СПб., 2001. С. 338-346.

D. N. Shilov.. Alexander II, Emperor
Baranov Nikolay Mikhailovich
Bogolyubov Arkhip Petrovich
Karakozov Dmitry Vladimirovich
Trepov Dmitry Fedorovich
Trepov Fedor Fedorovich
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna
Высоцкий И. П. Санкт-Петербургская столичная полиция и градоначальство, 1703-1903: Крат. ист. очерк. СПб., 1903
Длуголенский Я. Н. Военно-гражданская власть Санкт-Петербурга, 1703-1917. СПб., 2001
Всеподданнейший отчет генерал-адъютанта Трепова по управлению С.-Петербургским градоначальством и столичною полициею с 1866 по 1876 г. СПб. Ministry of Agriculture
Empress Maria's Department of Institutions
Solyanoy Settlement
Kazansky Demonstrations
House of Preliminary Detention, prison
1878
1878