Power and ax. Tsarist power, political investigation and Russian society in the XVIII century. Monograph

Autocracy and a political investigation are two historical institutions that are closely connected with each other. The meaning of the investigation consisted primarily in protecting the monarch and suppressing not only the political opposition, but also the slightest doubts of the subjects of the legality of the actions of the supreme power. All autocrats and autocrats of the 18th century were involved in a political detective: they started things, participated in interrogations, and sentenced. The book considers the system of state (political) crimes, the evolution of political investigation organs: denunciation, arrest, interrogation, investigation, torture, sentencing, execution or link. The reader will be able to observe how the self -awareness of Russian society was manifested during the century of the 18th century, what were its aspirations and how the state responded to them, changing criminal law.
Evgeny Anisimov-Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor and Scientific Director of the Department of History of the NIU Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg branch), professor of the European University in St. Petersburg, chief researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author of several hundred scientific publications