Museum of History of Political Police

Categories / Science. Education/Museums
MUSEUM OF HISTORY OF POLITICAL POLICE (6 Admiralty Avenue /2 Gorokhovaya Street), was founded in 1974 as F. E. Dzerzhinsky’s memorial study and in 1975 became a branch of the Museum of the Great October Socialist Revolution (see Museum of Russian Political History). It has been known under its present name since 1994. It is housed in the building of the former St. Petersburg City Hall and Police Department (1788-90, architect G. Quarenghi). This is where in 1878 V. I. Zasulich fired at F. F. Trepov, and where for over half a century the headquarters of Russian political police were located. Throughout its history the office changed names several times: in 1876-1901 it was known as City Hall Public Security and Order Administration Division, in 1917-18 - as the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission on Combating Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), afterwards until 1932 - as Petrograd Extraordinary Commission and Leningrad Department of Joint State Political Administration. The exposition is accommodated in three halls. The first hall shows a typical office of a St. Petersburg police station of the 19th - early 20th centuries where throughout Russian pre-revolutionary history arrested participants of social and revolutionary movements were interrogated. The exhibition in the second hall tells about the activities of political police until 1917, showing the documents of the Third Department (Third Section Of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancery, the body which conducted undercover police operations), sleuth diaries, and photos of intelligencers and agent provocateurs. The exposition of the third hall shows the history of political sleuth in Soviet Russia and the USSR (featuring governmental instructions, protocol extracts of sessions of Petrograd Extraordinary Commission and letters of political convicts). The museum also shows the exhibition entitled “Against Terrorism and Espionage devoted to the history of contemporary counter-intelligence and foreign intelligence.

References: Государственный Музей политической истории России: Путеводитель. СПб., 1995; Музеи Санкт-Петербурга и Ленинградской области: Справ. СПб., 2002. С. 104.

N. L. Korsakova. Dzerzhinsky Ivan Ivanovich
Quarenghi Giacomo
Trepov Fedor Fedorovich
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna
Admiralteysky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Gorokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Государственный Музей политической истории России: Путеводитель. СПб., 1995
Музеи Санкт-Петербурга и Ленинградской области: Справ. СПб., 2002 Museum of Russian Political History
Security Department
Third Division
Petrograd Cheka