Sigismund F. Kosetzky as a fighter against the revolution and his image in Perm publicistics

Abstract

The policeman Sigismund Franzevich Kosetzky (1871-1906) was a symbol of reaction for Perm revolutionaries and liberals in 1906. Therefore the study of his life and work helps to understand the history of the police and the revolutionary movement in Perm.Kosetzky was born in a noble family in Podolsk province. He studied badly in gymnasium and left it before graduation in 1894; then he served in the army but did not make a career there. In 1905 Kosetzky came to Perm on his way home from Russo-Japanese War and began his service at the police as an ordinary gorodovoy in Motovilikha. Kosetzky was promoted to the rank of okolotochniy nadziratel' in the beginning of 1906 for his «quickness and courage» in fights against revolutionaries.He defended Motovilikha's workers from the revolutionaries who were trying to make them continue the strike and took part in the arrests of Motovilikha's socialists. In May 1906 he became the assistant of the police officer of Motovilikha. In 1906 the Motovilikha's police established order in the streets and tried to organize a spare time of workers. On the 10th of October, 1906 the Social Democrat Mikov with his comrades assassinated Kosetzky in the Motovilikha theatre. The assassin was not found.In his memoirs Mikov presented Kosetzky as «a demon» who created the system of «provocateurs» in Perm cannon plants to fight against the revolution. But there are no acknowledgements of Kosetzky's role in the work with secret agents in official documents. The liberal newspaper «Kamskiy Kray» showed the policeman as «a rough solder » who broke the law, was rude to his prisoners and beat them. That myth also can not be proved or disproved with the use of official documents. The official newspaper «Permskie Gubernskie Vedomosti» tried to create another myth about Kosetzky as a hero but it also disfigured the real facts.The essay destroys the myths about Kosetzky, but the motives that made a Polish Catholic to fight for Russian monarchy are still unknown.