Okhrana

The Okhrana (Russian охрана or in the diminutive Ochranka ) was the unofficial term for the various intelligence agencies and secret police in czarist Russia. The official name for it was Ochrannoje otdelenie ( Охранное отделение, German: " Security Department ").

It was in 1881 by Tsar Alexander III. founded and was subordinate to the Interior Ministry. She went from the Third Department 's own firm out of his Imperial Majesty, which was established in 1826 by Tsar Nicholas I after the Decembrist revolt.

This department already took out the duties of a political secret police. Even Colonel Redl worked with the Okhrana and betrayed important operational plans of the Austria -Hungarian military in Russia. After the October Revolution, the Okhrana in 1917 was dissolved.

It was probably the Okhrana, the deemed the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion to strengthen the position of power Tsar Nicholas II. Even today, the Okhrana is therefore popular subject in countless conspiracy theories and the Illuminati.

Literally, Joseph Roth (1894-1939) in his novel confession of a murderer, told in one night (1936 ) the arbitrariness of the Tsarist secret police discussed.