"Nests of Spies" in Russia’s Governorate-General of Warsaw in 1906– 1914 (material from criminal cases)

Abstract

The article examines organized criminal activity by military espionage formations on the territory of the Warsaw Governor General between the Russian-Japanese War and the First World War. The study of this historical case became possible with the appearance of unique documents on foreign espionage, primarily stored in State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). The correspondences of gendarmes, counterintelligence and the Office of the Warsaw Governor-General, circulars, and intelligence on foreign intelligence activities helped shed light on the unfamiliar history of such group espionage. The goals and objectives of individual “nests of spies,” and forms and methods of their work, were revealed, providing a glimpse into some activities of organized crime by spies. Archival materials from formal inquiries and preliminary investigations for criminal cases on German and Austrian espionage were the main confirmation of a “spy past” in the Warsaw provinces. A study of criminal cases filed with the prosecutor of the Warsaw Court of Justice, and letters from prosecutors of district courts, judicial investigators, and officials of the Ministry of Justice provide a real picture of such espionage. The names of agents and emissaries or residents of German and Austrian intelligence, the scale of German and Austro-Hungarian intelligence activities in western Russia, the cost of secret documents, fees for cooperation with the enemy, judicial practice in espionage cases — this is not a complete list of information in these document. According to this study, the total number of spy networks and “spy nests” functioning in the Warsaw Governor-General can be established, as well as the number of “organized criminals” and those involved in committing criminal acts but avoiding criminal liability. In addition, signs of criminal activity indicated high functionality of this professional spy environment.