Reform of the Russian police: pluralism of approaches to implementation in the middle of the XIX century

The reform of the police system is an actual problem of any state, because the situation of the police, which is adequate to the realities of state and legal development, is a required condition for ensuring public order and protecting the state system at various historical stages of the country’s development. Mid XIX century for Russia became a time of transformation of all spheres of public life, which required adjustments to the organization and activities of the police. The article is devoted to the analysis of police reform projects of the 1850–1860s. Turning to these storylines makes it possible to see the complexity of preparing and conducting police reform in the context of the fight between a conservative and enlightened bureaucracy, where each group had its own idea of the structure and competence of the police. The reform projects of the Russian police are characterized on the basis of the analysis of archival materials and published documents of office work of state bodies, prepared by the famous writer, a police official M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin; the head of the Zemsky department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Y. A. Soloviev; a commission created by the Main Committee on Peasant Affairs, composed of S. S. Lansky, V. N. Panin, M. N. Muravyev and Y. I. Rostovtsev; Commission on provincial and district institutions led by N. A. Milyutin. It is done the conclusion about the phased implementation of the draft law prepared by the Commission on provincial and district institutions under the leadership of N. A. Milyutin and about the attention of the government to the organization and functioning of the police is a condition for maintaining law and order and an important factor in the sustainable progressive development of the state at each stage its historical development.