International Journal of Law And Criminology
40
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijlc
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue02 2025
PAGE NO.
40-43
10.37547/ijlc/Volume05Issue02-07
Formation and development of the military prosecutor's
office in Turkestan during the Russian empire period
Khudoyberdiyev Bakhodir Karimberdiyevich
Independent Researcher at the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Received:
21 December 2024;
Accepted:
23 January 2025;
Published:
25 February 2025
Abstract:
This article analyzes the formation and development of the prosecutor's office, particularly the military
prosecutor's office, in the Turkestan region after its occupation by the Russian Empire. Based on historical sources,
it illuminates the activities and functions of this institution.
Keywords:
Military district, Turkestan, military prosecutor's office, justice, Tsarist Russia, statute, governor-
general, supervision, emperor, court, protest.
Introduction:
Examining the history of statehood in
countries around the world, we can be certain that in
the emergence, consolidation, and defense of early
states, the formation and development of structures
and positions responsible for overseeing the
implementation of rules and regulations was a decisive
factor. In this regard, the military exercised authority in
areas including legislative oversight and judicial affairs.
It is worth noting that the state div now called the
"prosecutor's office" and the position known as
"prosecutor" were first introduced in the Russian
Empire on January 12, 1722. This occurred with the
establishment of the Senate by decree of Peter I (1672-
1725), the first Emperor of the Russian Empire, to
oversee the execution of laws.[1]
By imperial decree, Count Pavel Ivanovich Yaguzhinsky
was appointed the first Prosecutor General, about
whom Peter I said, "Here are my eyes and ears, through
which I see everything."[2]
The Prosecutor's Office was tasked with overseeing
compliance with legislation in the Senate's activities,
and subsequently in all state bodies. From this period
onwards,
it would not be an exaggeration to say that the
prosecutor's office and prosecutorial activity began to
occupy an important place in the system of state
administration.
In the Russian Empire, the Ministry of Justice was
established in 1802, and the Prosecutor General
simultaneously held the position of Minister of Justice.
The provincial prosecutor's offices became local bodies
of the Ministry of Justice.
On November 20, 1864, Russian Emperor Alexander II
approved the Judicial Statutes coordinating the
activities of the prosecutor's office. These Statutes
were gradually implemented throughout Russia.[3]
After the prosecutor's office was granted the authority
to oversee court matters in 1864, a prosecutor's office
began to form that was subordinate from the bottom
up, independent of local, administrative, and judicial
bodies. It was during this period that investigators were
subordinated to the prosecutor.
However, during this period, the prosecutor's office
was not organized as a separate div, and its functions
were performed by military governors. Military
governors carried out tasks such as reviewing the
materials of criminal cases during preliminary
investigations, sending cases to court, dismissing them,
returning them for further investigation, participating
in trials, and supporting prosecutions.
According to historical sources, as a result of the
military judicial reforms carried out in 1867, the
General Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian
Empire was established.
After the conquest by Tsarist Russia, at the end of the
19th century, a state div called the "prosecutor's
office" and a position called "prosecutor" were
International Journal of Law And Criminology
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International Journal of Law And Criminology (ISSN: 2771-2214)
introduced to the Turkestan region. The prosecutor's
office was organized and developed under the
jurisdiction of the courts. It can be said that this is how
the Military Prosecutor's Office, as it is called today,
came into existence.
From the 1840s, the troops of Tsarist Russia occupied
important strategic territories of the region and
established the Turkestan region,
which was administratively and militarily subordinate
to the Orenburg Governor-Generalship.
The legal basis for the administration of the Turkestan
region, the introduction of a corresponding legal order,
and the regulation of relations between the colonial
authorities and the local population was the
"Provisional Regulation on the Administration of the
Turkestan Region" of August 6, 1865.
According to the regulation, all power in the region was
in the hands of the military governor, who was
appointed by the Emperor based on a joint nomination
by the Orenburg Governor-General and the Minister of
War of the Russian Empire.
The main task of the military governor's administration
was to ensure peace and security in the region by
establishing the foundations of governance. It was
granted the right to control the lifestyle, land use, and
other legal relations of the local population.
In carrying out military-civil administration in the
region, the military governor's office was granted broad
powers and was headed by a Russian military officer.
He was appointed and dismissed by order upon the
recommendation of the military governor.
The head of the office was subordinate to the military
governor and was accountable to him. His legal status
was equivalent to that of the Chief of Staff of the
Military Governor.[4]
In the system of the administrative apparatus of the
Russian
Empire
in
Turkestan,
"military-civil
management" was observed, and great attention was
paid to personnel issues. Provincial governors - military
governors - were appointed by the Emperor. They
simultaneously possessed both military and civilian
authority.
In the military sphere, they were commanders of
troops (division or corps) in the provinces, and in civil
matters, they were governors.
All administrative, police, and judicial powers were also
under their control. Military governors had provincial
administrations, which had the rights of provincial
administration. All issues of the social life of the region
were considered in these departments.
After the conquest of Tashkent by the Russian Empire
(from 1865 to 1917), the administrative position of
khokim of Tashkent was introduced. During this period,
the hokim was elected by the city duma for a term of 4
years and approved by the Minister of War on the
recommendation of the Turkestan Governor-General.
The institution of direct prosecutorial supervision in the
territory of Central Asia was provided for in the draft
Temporary Statute on the Administration of the
Turkestan Krai, adopted in 1867.
The draft was submitted for revision to higher state
institutions, and before that, the Governor-General of
Turkestan was authorized to change the regional court.
In 1867, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman was
appointed Governor-General of Turkestan. He did not
exercise his right to separate the prosecutor's office
from the judiciary at the time of the judicial reform,
citing financial problems. Because in the staff of the
judicial bodies of the Turkestan Krai, there were also
military judicial commissions (dealing with crimes
against the government, attacks on postal and military
transport, robbery, arson, open resistance to the
government, etc.).
Since there is a special div in Russia that carries out
prosecutorial supervision, the Provisional Regulation
"On the Administration of the Turkestan Krai" provides
for the implementation of prosecutorial supervision
over the observance of laws by courts in the Turkestan
Krai. However, since the creation of special
prosecutor's offices was not envisaged, the authority to
conduct special prosecutorial oversight was assigned to
the Governor-General and regional military governors.
This approach to governance, in turn, gave the
Governor-General and the military governors of the
provinces subordinate to him unlimited absolute
monopoly. Although they had military knowledge, they
were not sufficiently competent in law.
In 1868, according to the draft Temporary Statute "On
the Administration of the Turkestan Krai," the
administration of judicial and legal matters was
entrusted to the Governor-General of Turkestan, and
Russian courts were organized and established in the
territories where Russians lived. Criminal and civil cases
arising among Russian citizens in Russian settlements in
the territory of the Bukhara Emirate were considered
by military commanders. They are endowed with the
powers of a prosecutor and a court investigator. For the
indigenous population, the laws of Sharia were in
effect. Any crime was reviewed and investigated by a
judge and punished.
According to the Statute of the Russian Empire "On the
Administration of the Turkestan Krai," adopted on June
12, 1886, changes were made to the activities of the
courts. The positions of regional prosecutor, assistant
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International Journal of Law And Criminology (ISSN: 2771-2214)
prosecutor, and court investigator have been
introduced. Article 2 of the Regulation will include a
provision stating that "Regional prosecutors and their
assistants operate under regional courts for
prosecutorial oversight." With this document, the
activities of the prosecutor's office (as it is called today)
were established for the first time in the Turkestan
region.
In 1887, the draft of this Regulation was officially
approved, and a special div for overseeing the
implementation of laws in Turkestan - the prosecutor's
office, as well as the positions of prosecutor, his
assistant, and investigator - were introduced.
In the Turkestan Krai, according to its three
independent administrative-territorial entities, there
were three prosecutors (the governor of the Syrdarya
region, the head of the Zarafshan district, and the head
of the Amu Darya department).
In the same year, prosecutor's offices were established
under the courts of Syrdarya, New Margilan,
Samarkand,
and
Verny
(Almaty)
regions,
administratively subordinate to the Minister of Justice
of Russia, based on the administrative-territorial
principle.
The Prosecutor's Office in Turkestan, as the main part
of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Empire,
implemented the laws of the empire and oversaw the
implementation of laws.
On June 2, 1898, the Decree "On the Application of
Court Statutes in the Syrdarya, Samarkand, Fergana,
Semirechensk, Akmola, Ural, and Turgay Regions" was
published. It strictly stipulates that only Russian citizens
can be appointed to judicial positions.
In 1899, the prosecutor's office in the Turkestan Krai
consisted of two branches: the prosecutor's office
under the Judicial Chamber and the prosecutor's office
under the district courts. The district prosecutor was
subordinate to the prosecutor of the court chamber,
and the prosecutor of the court chamber was directly
subordinate to the Minister of Justice. The entire
prosecutor's office was headed by the Prosecutor
General, who was simultaneously the Minister of
Justice.
At this time, the activities of the prosecutor's office
were carried out in three directions, namely:
1. Initiation of criminal cases, inquiry and preliminary
investigation and control over them, referral of criminal
cases to the court, conviction of the accused before the
court, filing protests against sentences, giving
instructions for their execution;
2. Control over the compliance of the activities of the
judicial div, as well as participate in meetings of the
Department of the Tashkent Judicial Chamber with the
participation of the board and the Judicial Council with
instructions on the implementation of the law, the
identified shortcomings, and the application of
disciplinary measures;
3.Control of detention facilities and proper placement
of prisoners in prisons.
This procedure was in effect until 1917. However, it
should be noted that these rules directly contradicted
the Sharia norms applied by the Qazi courts in
Turkestan.
Historical information about the development and
formation of the prosecutor's office in European
countries, especially in France and Russia, is widely
covered in V.I. Baskov's textbook "Course of
Prosecutorial Supervision" for higher educational
institutions.
The book shows that until 1917, the prosecutor's office
was considered a strong punitive div protecting the
reactionary state system and ceased to exist along with
Tsarist Russia.
The history of the development of the Prosecutor's
Office testifies to the fact that in the past, it, as a state
div, within the framework of state-defined functions,
performed tasks ranging from universal oversight of
everyone, including citizens, to the protection of
private and public interests.
In short, the position and task of overseeing the
implementation of laws ensuring the rights of the state
and society, man and citizen has existed in Uzbekistan
not since the 19th century, but since the distant past,
that is, in the regions of Central Asia, the terms
"prosecutor" or "prosecutor's office," which are used
today, were not used, but we can conclude that in
certain societies, the implementation of laws specific to
them was carried out in accordance with the methods
of that time and by regulatory state bodies (officials).
REFERENCES
Prosecutor's Office to St. Petersburg. -SPB. 1987. P.6,
Z.S. Ibragimov. Independence and the Prosecutor's
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p.22.
Under the protection of the Motherland and the law.
Military Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of
Uzbekistan. Civilization. Tashkent-2024, p.34.
History of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian
Empire. // Bulletin of the Moscow Institute. Sir. No. 11,
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and the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of
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Under the protection of the Motherland and the law.
International Journal of Law And Criminology
43
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International Journal of Law And Criminology (ISSN: 2771-2214)
Military Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of
Uzbekistan. Civilization. Tashkent-2024, p.37
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