Activities of the Diplomatic Chancellery of the Irkutsk Governor-General on the Eve of and During the February Revolution of 1917
| 30 September 2025
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УДК 94(470)
Raisa A. Izakson, East-Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Irkutsk, Russian Federation
Activities of the Diplomatic Chancellery of the Irkutsk Governor-General on the Eve of and During the February Revolution of 1917
Abstract
The article analyzes the activities of the Diplomatic Chancellery and the organizing role of the Irkutsk Governor General's diplomatic officer on the eve of and during the February Revolution of 1917. The author focuses on structure and reorganization of state agencies in the sphere of migration policy and on the regulatory framework of the period. The article introduces documents from the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region into scientific use. The research allows to conclude that the Governor General's role in implementation of migration policies was considerable. The diplomatic officer under the Irkutsk Governor General (since 1917 under the Krai commissar) provided not only the information link between Russian consulates in China and Mongolia, foreign consulates in Irkutsk, but also led an active and secret correspondence with the police forces of the region, which on his requests and upon the information received from the consuls investigated suspicious foreigners. Evidently, he was the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia to regional authorities. The central directorate of the Amur River General Governorship administration consisted of the General Governor’s Directorate including diplomatic officer and his chancellery, mining engineer, engineer of the Ministry of Communication, land survey master and his chancellery. The settlement of migration problems depended on good work of every subdivision of the General Governorship. Accounts department collected duties on issue of foreigner’s passports and visas; land survey department managed Chinese and Mongolian land tenure in the region; mining officer was in charge of foreign labor permit and use in the mines; police and judiciary department enforced law.
Keywords
Archive, source, Diplomatic Chancellery, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic officer, Eastern Siberia, migration policy.
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About the authors
Izakson Raisa Andreyevna, lecturer at the general legal training department, East-Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Irkutsk, Russian Federation, +7-902-577-63-74, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it