Records of Moscow Police Chancellery in the 1779 as a Historical Source

The main purpose of this work is to identify the information potential of the investigation files of the Moscow Police Chancellery in 1779 as a historical source. The information resources of the source will later be used in the study of various aspects of the history of pre-revolutionary Russia. The nature of the work involves the use of source analysis procedures: analysis of the origin and content of the investigation files of the Moscow police master's office. This study led me to a number of conclusions: First, the Moscow Police Chancellery was significantly involved in the mechanism of criminal proceedings of the Russian Empire of the XVIII century, and it had at its disposal a number of techniques and methods that were not provided for by the legal acts regulating the functionality of this institution. Secondly, the analysis of social characteristics of crime allowed us to make sure that criminals of the 70s of the XVIII century were characterized by marginality, when their social self-identification was associated not with belonging to a social group, but with some type of occupation or status of another social group. This resulted in a request for social mobility, which, in the conditions of gradual enslavement and militarization of of the population, could not be satisfied. This resulted in escapes that inevitably led to marginalization and criminalization due to the state's repressive policy towards escapees. Thus, the study of investigation files has shown that as a source for the history of crime and everyday life, this source has a significant information potential, which is becoming important against the background of ongoing discussions about the social structure, social mobility and crime of Russian pre-revolutionary society.