The Livonian police (1914-1917): from professional incompetence to political unreliability

Abstract

By summarizing and analyzing archival documents little known to historians of the secret services and law enforcement, this study reveals an unknown chapter in the history of World War I: the participation of gendarmes and external police officers of the Livonian Governorate in the Baltic region on the «secret front» of the fight against German espionage. It concludes that the gendarmes did not provide the armies of the Northern Front with adequate assistance in preventing and suppressing espionage. It examines the military command’s distrust of the police due to their political disloyalty to the military authorities, including their betrayal of their shared interests in ensuring the security of the first line of defense.