The Third Section as an institution for drawing boundaries between the “ordinary” and the “strange”: The “strange” files on the writer V. V. Krestovsky

Abstract

Several functions of the Third Section were articulated in such a vague and abstract way that they actually extended the scope of authority and influence of this institution to the point of observing literally all incidents and occurrences countrywide. Nicholas I conceived the Third Section as an institution that would operate outside of and without regard for the existing legislation of the Russian Empire and would report directly to the Emperor. Thus, the criteria for decision-making by the Third Section often were based not on objective laws or statutes, but on the subjective understanding of the ethical by its staff. The Third Section can be of particular interest to a researcher if viewed as a unique institution the competence of which included localizing the borderline between the ordinary, interpreted as the acceptable, “well-intentioned”, and the unusual, and therefore suspicious and potentially dangerous for the state. The article deals with several files of the Third Section (introduced here into scientific circulation for the first time) on surveillance of the writer V. V. Krestovsky. Krestovsky was regarded as an agent of the “writers' league”, traditionally perceived by the authorities as an embodiment of “the strange”, thus making his case an interesting object for analyzing the secret police machinery.