On May 28, Russia celebrated the Day of the Border Guard. The people defending the borders of our Motherland have always been and will be the elite of the armed forces, an example to follow for the younger generations. The festive date dates back to the day the RSFSR Border Guard was established. On May 28, 1918, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the Main Directorate of the Border Guard of the RSFSR was created, the basis of which was the former Directorate of the Separate Corps of the Border Guard of Russia. It is this structure that is the direct predecessor of the modern bodies of the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Formation of border guards
The history of the Russian border guard bodies goes back to the pre-revolutionary period of the existence of the Russian state. The protection of the state border has always played a strategic role in ensuring the defense capability and security of the country, therefore, as the Russian state strengthened, the mechanisms for protecting the state border were also improved, including the development of bodies responsible for protecting the country's borders. Although the units guarding the state border existed in Russia as early as the 16th century, the centralization and streamlining of the activities of the border guard dates back to the first half of the 19th century. For a long time, huge sections of the state border were guarded by the Cossacks. The Cossacks, as irregular armed forces, bore the main burden of the state border guard service, but there was a need to centralize the state border guard system, especially since significant sections of the border passed in those regions where there were no traditional Cossack areas. Accordingly, there was a need to strengthen the existing guard units that previously performed customs functions.
In August 1827, the Regulation on the structure of the border customs guard was adopted, according to which the border guard acquired the character of a regular armed formation with a uniform structure, acting on the model of an army unit. The armament of the border guards, their uniforms and the organization of everyday life were reduced to a single model. The border guards were divided into brigades, semi-brigades and companies subordinate to the heads of customs districts. In total, four brigades were created. The Vilna brigade included five companies, the Grodno brigade - three companies, the Volyn brigade - four companies, and the Kherson - three companies. In addition, the border guards were carried by seven semi-brigades of two companies in each - St. Petersburg, Estland, Liflyand, Kurlyand, Odessa, Tavricheskaya and Taganrog. Also, two separate companies were created - Belomorskaya and Kerch-Yenikalskaya. Thus, the total number of border guard companies reached 31. In the border guard units, 11 brigade and semi-brigade commanders, 31 company commanders, 119 overseers and 156 assistant overseers, 37 clerks, 3282 guards, including 2018 mounted and 1264 foot guards served. In 1835, the customs border guard received the name of the border guard, and its number was gradually increased.
The growth in the number of border guards of the Russian Empire was inextricably linked with the processes of further strengthening the Russian statehood and streamlining the country's borders. In 1851, the customs borders of the Russian Empire were moved to the outer borders of the Kingdom of Poland, after which it became necessary to create new border guard brigades. So three more brigades appeared - Verzhbolovskaya, Kalishskaya and Zavikhotskaya. The personnel of the border guard was increased by 26 officers and 3760 guards. In total, by 1853, 73 staff officers, 493 chief officers and 11,000 lower ranks of the border guards served as part of the border guard. In accordance with the Customs Charter of 1857, the structure of the border guard was established in 8 brigades and 6 semi-brigades, 1 separate company of the border guard. Thus, the border guard was divided into 58 border guard companies. In 1859, in order to streamline the internal structure of the border guard, the semi-brigades were also transformed into border guard brigades. The total number of border guards during the period under review reached 13,000 people, including 600 officers.
The detachments, which consisted of the border guard companies, were commanded by sergeants and non-commissioned officers with extensive experience in carrying the border service. In 1860, training teams were created for the training of sergeants and non-commissioned officers at the border brigades. This measure was explained by the growing need of the border guards for junior commanders capable of commanding border detachments and individual posts. The principle of staffing the border guards was also changed. Since 1861, the border guards began to be staffed by recruiting - that is, as well as the regular army. From the army, the soldiers were selected for the border guard. By the end of the 1870s. the internal structure of the border brigade was also streamlined. Each brigade was now to have 75 officers and 1200 lower ranks. In the brigades, the posts of headquarters officers for assignments and border guard inspectors were introduced.
Border guard structure
In the Russian Empire, the border guard was always directly subordinate to the departments of the economic profile. Until 1864, the Department of Foreign Trade was in charge of the protection of the state border, and on October 26, 1864 it was renamed the Department of Customs Duties. The secretary of state secretary Dmitry Aleksandrovich Obolensky became the director of the Department.
The total number of border guards by 1866 was 13,152 officers and lower ranks. The border guard brigade was responsible for the protection of the state border on the territory from 100 to 1000 versts. The commander of the border guard brigade was a colonel or even a major general. The brigade consisted of departments led by lieutenant colonels and detachments led by head captain and captain. The company of the frontier guards was on duty on a section stretching from 200 to 500 versts of the border. Two to seven companies made up a brigade. The company consisted of 2-3 detachments, and they, in turn, included 15-20 posts headed by sergeants and non-commissioned officers. For one rank of the border guard there was a section of the border with a length of 2 to 5 versts. The senior post and the commander of the detachment were engaged in the day-to-day organization of guard duty, including setting up detachments of from 1 to 5 guards on the border line. The pedestrian ranks of the border service guarded the posts, and the mounted guards made patrols between the posts. The tasks of the mounted guards included the detection and capture of smugglers and border trespassers trying to break through the stationary border guard posts. As foreign trade developed, the number of smugglers and attempts to smuggle goods across the state border also grew. A particularly important task of the border guards during the period under review was to prevent the transportation of prohibited literature and weapons across the border of the Russian Empire, which were used by numerous radical socialist and separatist groups. In 1877 g. In the border guard of the Russian Empire, the army disciplinary charter was adopted as the basis for service, after which the position of the commander of the border brigade was equated to the position of the regiment commander, and the position of the head of the customs district was equated to the position of the commander of an army brigade.
In the context of constantly aggravated relations with the Ottoman Empire, the most numerous fears of the state authorities were caused by the situation on the Russian-Turkish border. Russia's southern borders were the least controlled, but at the same time strategically important and subject to constant attempts to trespass the border by both smugglers and Turkish spies. The smuggling trade was actively supported by the Ottoman Empire, hoping with its help to undermine the economy of the Russian Empire. Behind the back of the Ottoman Empire was the main strategic enemy of Russia - Great Britain, which also made colossal efforts to weaken the Russian economy. Increasing the effectiveness of the fight against smugglers required an increase in the number of border guards on the southern borders of the country, primarily on the Black Sea coast. In November 1876, the number of the Tavricheskaya Border Guard Brigade was increased, which included new positions of 2 department commanders, 1 detachment officer and 180 lower ranks. The number of posts and personnel serving on posts was also increased. By the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. the number of border guards reached 575 officers and 14,700 lower ranks.
Protection of sea borders
During the period under review, sea smuggling became a serious problem for the Russian state. The coastal sections of the state border were the least protected, there were few border posts on them, so smugglers calmly unloaded consignments of goods from ships and then transported them into the country. In order to resist sea smuggling, the state decided to equip the border guards in the coastal districts with pilot boats and give them military steamships. So, in 1865, three pilot boats were purchased in Norway and delivered to the disposal of the Revel customs district. The Libava customs district was assigned military steamers, which were supposed to be used for the border guard of the Courland coast. Border boats made patrols along the coast, in fact performing the same functions as mounted border guards on land. The duties of the border team on the boat included stopping and inspecting ships that were suspected of transporting contraband goods.
In order to improve the experience of organizing maritime border guards, the head of the Riga customs district, Rear Admiral Stofregen, went to Great Britain and France. After the trip, he collected and submitted to a special commission materials on increasing the efficiency of the maritime border guards. As a result of the commission's work, "Additional legislative regulations concerning Russian and foreign ships entering the territorial sea" and "Instructions for the actions of cruisers established for the pursuit of contraband by sea" were adopted. In addition to the Coast Guard, a coastal maritime surveillance was established, also subordinate to the customs department.
Officially, the date of the establishment of the maritime border control can be considered July 1, 1868, when the State Council considered and approved the maritime control over the non-smuggling of contraband by ships. However, in fact, the creation of units that ensure control over the sea sections of the state border falls on the beginning of the 1870s. In 1872, Emperor Alexander II reacted positively to the idea of the Ministry of Finance, according to which a cruising flotilla was to be created in the Baltic Sea. Large funds were allocated for the creation of a maritime frontier flotilla, and on July 4, 1873, the Regulation on the Baltic cruising customs flotilla and its staff were approved. In accordance with this provision, the structure of the flotilla and the order of service were approved. The flotilla consisted of 10 steamers, 1 steam rescue boat and 101 boats. The ships of the flotilla passed on the lists of the navy, but in peacetime they were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, and specifically the Department of Customs Duties. The flotilla administration consisted of a chief with the rank of rear admiral, a clerk - a civil servant, a mechanical engineer, a ship engineer, an officer of naval artillery, and a senior doctor. The total number of the flotilla was 156 people, including 26 officers led by Rear Admiral P. Ya. Sheet. The Baltic customs cruising flotilla began service in the summer of 1873. Each cruiser of the flotilla was at the disposal of the command of the coast guard brigades. The tasks of the cruisers included, first of all, suppression of smuggling, which was a very difficult task, since the population of coastal villages was closely associated with smugglers and had their own financial "bonuses" from cooperation with violators of the state border. Locals monitored cruiser routes and reported to smugglers, which also made it difficult to catch border trespassers. Nevertheless, the maritime border control has made a great contribution to the organization of the protection of the state border on the Baltic Sea. Over the course of ten years, more than a thousand ships carrying contraband cargo were detained by the naval units of the border guard. At the same time, limited financial resources made it possible to have maritime border supervision only in the Baltic Sea. Other coastal waters of the Russian Empire were protected only by coastal border posts.
Strengthening border guards at the end of the 19th century
The fight against smuggling remained the most important task of the border guard. In 1883, there was an enlargement of customs districts, the number of which was brought to seven, with centers in St. Petersburg, Vilna, Warsaw, Berdichev, Odessa, Tiflis and Tashkent. At the same time, there was an increase in the number of personnel of the border guard, which in 1889 consisted of 36 519 lower ranks and 1147 officers. They were united in 32 brigades and 2 special departments. At the same time, military ranks were ordered - ranks were introduced in the border guard, which operated in the cavalry units of the Russian army. The ensign was called a cornet, the staff captain and the captain were called the staff captain and the captain, respectively. The tasks of improving the system of protecting the state border required the creation of new units of the border guard, primarily in those regions of the Russian Empire, where the least protected sections of the state border were located. One of these regions was the Caucasus. In 1882-1883. the Black Sea, Baku and Karsk border guard brigades with a total number of personnel of 75 officers and 2,401 lower ranks were created. In 1894, it was decided to form border units in Central Asia. On June 6, 1894, the emperor signed a decree on the creation of the Trans-Caspian border guard brigade, numbering 1559 officers and lower ranks, and the Amu Darya border guard brigade, numbering 1035 officers and lower ranks. The tasks of these brigades included the protection of the state border on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
During the period under review, the border guard was in the competence of the Ministry of Finance. Initially, the functions of the border guard were merged with the functions of the customs service, since the border guard was part of the Department of Customs Duties. However, as the needs for the development of border guards grew and their numbers increased, the country's leadership became clear about the need to separate the border guards into a separate structure, as required by the current situation in the field of state border protection. As a result, on October 15, 1893, a Separate Border Guard Corps was created, also subordinate to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire, but separated from the customs service. In wartime, the corps passed into the operational subordination of the Ministry of War. Among the main functions of the corps were the protection of the border and the fight against smuggling. The border guards ceased to deal with customs duties from the moment they were assigned to a special corps, at the same time, the border guards were entrusted with the duties of helping the army in conducting hostilities on the border in wartime.
The Border Guard Corps was led by the Minister of Finance, who was also the Chief of the Border Guard. Subordinate to him was the Corps Commander, who was in direct control of the Border Guard. The first chief of the Separate Border Guard Corps was the then Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, Count Sergei Yulievich Witte. The commander of the Separate Border Guard Corps was General of Artillery A. D. Svinin. Alexander Dmitrievich Svinin (1831-1913) served in the artillery before being appointed the first commander of the border corps. In 1851, the twenty-year-old ensign Svinin was assigned to the 3rd brigade of field artillery. In 1875 he was appointed commander of the 1st battery of the 29th artillery brigade, then the 1st battery of the 30th artillery brigade. Participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. In 1878-1879. he was listed as assistant to the chief of artillery of the principality of Bulgaria, then commanded the 30th artillery brigade and was the chief of artillery of the 7th Army Corps and the Guards Corps. From October 15, 1893 to April 13, 1908 Artillery General Svinin headed the Separate Border Guard Corps. He was an experienced army officer who actually created a system for protecting the state border of the Russian Empire.
The corps commander was subordinate to the corps headquarters, which directly organized the recruitment, service and combat training and material and technical support of the units of the Separate Border Guard Corps. The activity of the corps was reduced to carrying out two main types of service - patrol and reconnaissance. The guard service assumed surveillance of the state border, the intelligence service - the implementation of military and agent intelligence in the area of the state border in order to collect information about a possible violation of the state border. The state border was divided into distances, each of which was administered by a border guard officer. The distances were divided into patrols, which were guarded by cordons or border guard posts. The protection of sections of the border was carried out in the following ways: sentry, secret, horse patrol and detour, flying detachment, sentry at the customs slingshot, duty at the post, ambush. Border guards also operated on the railroad to combat attempts to smuggle smugglers by rail.
Troubled border in the East
A serious problem for the Russian state in the period under review was to ensure the protection of the state border in the eastern part of the country. First of all, we are talking about the Far East, where there were unresolved territorial disputes with China. When the Russian government was still able to agree with the imperial government of China on the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Manchuria, the need arose to create border units at the Chinese Eastern Railway. The very fact of the functioning of the CER caused great dissatisfaction among both the Chinese authorities and the Japanese government, which was claiming influence in Manchuria. From time to time, Chinese bandits - hunghuzes attacked the objects of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and during the uprising of the Ichtuan in 1900, about 1000 kilometers of the railway were destroyed. The Russian population, represented by employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway and service personnel, was also at risk of being robbed and killed by Chinese bandits. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the railway, transported goods and infrastructure, a guard was created, subordinate to the administration of the railway and financed from the budget of the CER. When in 1897 the builders of the Construction Department of the CER under the leadership of engineer A. I. Shidlovsky, they were accompanied by a foot fifty Kuban esaul Povievsky. Since the Russian Empire, in accordance with the agreement concluded with China, had no right to keep units of regular ground forces in the CER strip, it was decided to entrust the tasks of protecting the railway itself and its builders to a specially formed Security Guard of the CER, which was staffed with servicemen and border guards who formally went to resignation and no longer considered officers and non-commissioned officers of the regular Russian army. The number of the Security Guard of the CER was 699 equestrian lower ranks and 120 officers. The head of the guard was directly subordinate to the chief engineer of the CER. During the Ihetuan uprising, the Guard, together with the regular army, participated in hostilities against the Chinese rebels, preventing attempts to sabotage the railway and attacks on the residences of employees and builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The security guards of the CER had their own uniforms. The guards of the Chinese Eastern Railway wore blue trousers and black jackets, trousers of trousers, buttonholes were yellow, like the top of a hat. The caps had black bands and yellow crowns. Officers' uniforms had black buttonholes with yellow piping. The guards did not have shoulder straps on their uniforms - instead, officers wore gilded shoulder straps, and the sergeants and sergeants wore galloons on the sleeves of their jackets.
In 1901, on the basis of the security unit of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Zaamur Border Guard District was created. Colonel A. A. Gengross. The okrug was of strategic importance in ensuring the defense and security of the Far East, since it guarded the CER and adjacent territories. The state of the district was established in 55 hundreds of horsebacks, 55 companies and 6 horse-mountain batteries. They united in 12 detachments and 4 border brigades. The total number of the border guards of the Zaamur district was about 25 thousand officers and lower ranks. 24 training teams, an artillery training team and an artillery warehouse were located on the territory of the district. Thus, the Zaamur Border District took a special position in the structure of the Separate Border Guard Corps. The number of officers and lower ranks in the district's divisions reached 25 thousand people, and in the Separate Border Guard Corps, if you do not take into account the Zaamur District, only 35 thousand people served. That is, in terms of number, the district was not much smaller than the entire corps of the country's border guards. The section of the railway between Kayuan and Harbin was guarded by the 2nd brigade of the district, consisting of 18 companies, 18 hundreds of cavalry and 3 artillery batteries. Also, the competence of this brigade included the protection of the water area - the Songhua River from Harbin to the Amur. The section of the railway between Cayuan and Port Arthur was in the competence of the 4th Border Guard Brigade, the composition and structure of which was not much weaker than the 2nd Brigade. Border detachments in Transcaucasia and Central Asia, guarding the state border with Persia, Turkey and Afghanistan, had a certain commonality with the border units on the Chinese Eastern Railway. Here the service was the most intense, since, in addition to smugglers, there was a constant risk of crossing the state border by armed gangs committing robberies. The border guard was responsible for the protection of the Black Sea and Caspian coasts, only the area between Gagra and Gelendzhik was guarded by the Cossack army.
The waters of the Black Sea were patrolled by the cruisers of the flotilla of the Separate Border Guard Corps. To support the border guards in Transcaucasia, units of the regular army and Cossack troops were allocated. In particular, the Kara border guard brigade was assigned three companies from the 20th and 39th infantry divisions, the Erivan border guard brigade - a company of the 39th infantry division. In the Amur District and Transbaikalia, three hundred of the Zaamur District of the Border Guard, with a total of 350 officers and lower ranks, carried the border service. In the Pamir region, the state border was guarded by the Pamir army detachment; a number of sections of the state border continued to be guarded by Cossack units at the beginning of the 20th century.
When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the Zaamur Border Guard District was directly involved in it. Units of border guards not only guarded the CER line, but also participated in military clashes with Japanese troops, prevented sabotage and forays of Chinese bandits - hunghuz. In total, the subdivisions of the district participated in 200 armed clashes, and also prevented 128 sabotage on the railway. Subdivisions of the district took part in the hostilities in the area of Port Arthur, Liaoyang and Mukden. Operationally, during the war years, the district was subordinate to the command of the Manchurian army. In the post-war period, the protection of the CER gradually began to decline, which was due to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. On October 14, 1907, the Zaamur district was reorganized and since that time included 54 companies, 42 hundreds, 4 batteries and 25 training teams. All these units were 12 detachments, united in three brigades. The Zaamur District Hospital was also opened to treat the wounded and sick border guards. At the headquarters of the district, schools of Japanese and Chinese languages were organized, labor-intensive work was established to create topographic maps, conduct topographic research. In 1910, the okrug was reorganized again, this time in the direction of a greater “militarization” of its structure. The district now consisted of 6 foot and 6 horse regiments, including 60 companies and 36 hundreds with 6 machine-gun teams and 7 training units. In addition, the district headquarters had 4 artillery batteries, a sapper company and service units at its disposal. In 1915, a significant part of the personnel of the Zaamur Border Guard District, as fresh forces, was sent to the Austro-German front to participate in hostilities.
The Zaamur Border Guard District included the Zaamur Border Railway Brigade. Its formation began in 1903 and the first year it included the management of a brigade and four three-company battalions. In May 1904, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the brigade became four-company, and the 3rd and 4th battalions became five-company. The task of the brigade was to ensure the smooth operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway, especially during periods of emergency. The basis for the formation of the brigade was the railway and sapper companies of the Russian army. The number of the railway company was 325 lower ranks, including 125 lower ranks were allocated from the railway and sapper units, and 200 people from the infantry. During the war with Japan, it was the Zaamur railway brigade that bore the main tasks of ensuring the uninterrupted operation and protection of the Chinese Eastern Railway. In particular, the brigade's subdivisions resolved issues on organizing the transportation of troops, evacuating wounded servicemen, ensuring the full operation of railway branches, restoring the damaged railway track.
- a group of lower ranks of the battalion of the Zaamur border railway brigade
By 1914, the Zaamur border railway brigade included command and control units and the brigade's headquarters, three eight-company broad-gauge regiments. The brigade was subordinate to the commander of the Separate Border Guard Corps, but acted as a base for combat training of specialists of the railway units of the imperial army. With the outbreak of the First World War, the command realized the need to form another railway connection, the base for which also became the Zaamur Border Railway Brigade. On the territory of the Caucasus, the 2nd Zaamur border railway brigade was formed as part of the brigade's command and three railway battalions. Each battalion included 35 officers and 1046 lower ranks - soldiers and non-commissioned officers. In January 1916, soldiers of the 4th company of the 1st Zaamur border railway brigade under the command of Captain Krzhivoblotskiy participated in the construction of the Zaamurets self-propelled armored carriage. At the beginning of 1917, the Zaamurets was used as an anti-aircraft self-propelled gun on the Southwestern Front. The brigade commander was appointed Colonel Mikhail Kolobov, who previously held the post of chief of staff of the 1st Zaamur border railway brigade. Subsequently, Kolobov became the head of the military department of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and then took part in the White movement and after the establishment of the power of the Bolshevik Party, he emigrated to China.
World War I and Revolution
The Border Guard played a crucial role in protecting the state border of the Russian Empire. The service of the border guards then, as now, remained very risky, but the officers and lower ranks performed their official duties with honor, sometimes giving their health and lives for the safety of the Russian state. In only twenty years from 1894 to 1913. the border guards participated in 3595 armed clashes. The border guards eliminated 1302 border violators, while the total number of those killed in battles with border guards violators and smugglers over 20 years was 177 people. The training of border guards was aimed at ensuring constant readiness to enter hostilities. In fact, the border guards functioned in wartime even in peacetime. By the time the First World War began, the Separate Border Guard Corps included seven western and southern districts, 31 border brigades, 2 special divisions, a cruising flotilla of 10 sea cruisers, and the Zaamur district. The number of border guards reached 60,000 officers and lower ranks. After the outbreak of the First World War, the border guard units were included in the active army. On January 1, 1917, the Separate Border Guard Corps was renamed the Separate Border Guard Corps. Those border units that guarded the border with countries with which the Russian Empire did not conduct hostilities actually functioned in the same regime, the rest operated as part of the Russian army.
One of the serious shortcomings of the border guards of the Russian Empire was the lack of specialized educational institutions for the training of officers of the Separate Border Guard Corps. Meanwhile, the specifics of service on the border required the presence of certain special knowledge, which yesterday's army officers did not always possess. The officers of the border guards were recruited, first of all, from among the officers of the Cossack troops and cavalry, to a lesser extent - from the infantry and artillery. They also had their own specialists in the medical and weapons services. The lower ranks, as mentioned above, were recruited on common grounds for all armed forces. The lower ranks filled the combatant and non-combatant positions of the border corps. The lower ranks included: ordinary warrant officers, commonplace military officials, ensigns, sergeants and sergeant major, senior non-commissioned officers (junior sergeants), non-combatant senior rank with sergeant-major distinctions, junior non-commissioned officers (chiefs of senior posts) and ranks, privates (rangers, guards). Clerks and other service personnel of headquarters and divisions served in non-combatant positions.
The revolution of 1917 entailed cardinal changes in the system of protecting the state border. On March 5, 1917, a meeting of border guards was held in Petrograd, chaired by non-commissioned officer R. A. Muklevich. In accordance with the decision of the meeting, the corps commander, General of Infantry N. A. Pykhachev, and the place of the corps commander was taken by Lieutenant General G. G. Mokasey-Shibinsky. The chief of staff of the corps instead of the dismissed Lieutenant General N. K. Kononov became Colonel S. G. Shamshev. At the time of the events in question, most of the state border in the European part of Russia and in the Transcaucasus was violated as a result of the war and was not controlled by the Russian state. After the October Revolution and the emergence of the Soviet state, the issue of protecting the state border was again actualized. By the decision of the Soviet government, the Main Directorate of the Border Guard was created under the People's Commissariat for Finance. The basis for the creation of the Glavka was the management and headquarters of the Separate Border Corps. In July 1918, up to 90% of the former officers of the old tsarist border guard remained in the Glavka of the Border Guard. It is significant that among them there was not a single member of the RCP (b), which aroused the discontent of the party leadership. Ultimately, the party leadership decided to remove the head of the Office of the former Tsarist Lieutenant General Mokasey-Shibinsky. The general was accused of appointing exclusively military specialists to leading positions, but not communists, maintaining the old-regime order in management and not seeking to reorganize it. The commissars of the Glavka recommended that the Soviet leadership release Mokasey-Shibinsky from his post and replace him with S. G. Shamsheva. On September 6, 1918, Mokasey-Shibinsky was relieved of his post as head of the Main Directorate of the Border Guard, and S. G. Shamshev. In September 1918, the Border Guard Council petitioned the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council to liquidate the border guard. The Temporary Liquidation Commission was created, which was ordered to complete the work on the liquidation of the Main Directorate of the Border Guard by February 15, 1919. Thus ended the history of the pre-revolutionary and early years of the revolution of the border guard of the Russian state. At the same time, it should be noted that it was during the Soviet period that the real formation of border guard bodies and border troops took place, which turned into a really powerful and effective instrument for protecting state interests.
