O. V. Shinin Organization of Agencies of Soviet Authority in the Amur Region of Military Secret Service in 1920

Abstract: This article is basically the first introduced into scholarly circulation that deals with archival intelligence materials of the RGVA (Russian State Military Archive), RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Sociopolitical History), TsAMO RF (Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation), RGIA DV (Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East), and the Archive of the UFSB (Office of Federal Security Service) of Russia in the Omsk District. It studies the problem of the organization of the secret service by Soviet authority in the Amur Region—a topic on which practically no light has been shed in the scholarly historical literature. The process examines the creation of intelligence services and their organizational and staff conversion in 1920 from Sovietization of the region to its becoming part of the Far Eastern Republic. In addition, the article identifies features of transformation in the functional tasks that stood before the indicated institutions. The essence and scale of organization of intelligence activities in the territory of the Russian Far East and northern China during the indicated period have been revealed. As a result, the author concludes that the process of creating agencies of military secret service in the Amur Region in 1920 differed substantially. The tasks of conducting reconnaissance were dispersed among several regional authoritative organizations, which in addition were also solving tasks of characteristic counter-intelligence. The functions of these organizations duplicated each other and thus often led to unhealthy competition. The activities of the intelligence organizations consumed no small financial and material-technical means. Accordingly, the results of implementation of the intelligence tasks, revealed by the preserved archival documents, appear to be insufficient. Only at the end of 1920 were the functions of management of the military secret service concentrated in the registration department of the 2nd Amur Army. This permitted imposing a certain order on this question and establishing bases of effective organization in the collection of intelligence about threats to the security of the Far Eastern Republic.

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