English "bobby" versus russian policeman (english police in the public opinion of the russians in the XIXth - early XXth centuries)
Problems of people’s attitude towards the police existed and exist in all countries with a different degree of severity. This article provides an overview of the history of the police in England of the XIXth - early ХХth centuries. The main attention has paid to the measures taken by the government and the society to improve the police activities and reputation of its employees. It has shown, that a high level of credibility of the British as well as foreigners to the British police despite a rather high crime rate and low crime detection is largely due to longstanding endeavors of the state, police chiefs as well as public members and literary figures in increasing the reputation of the police among the public. For the first time in the Russian and English scientific literature, this article analyzes the views of Russian public figures, writers, journalists, administrators and the police on the organization and activities of the police in England, and people’s attitude towards the police. It is concluded that the frequent comparison in the liberal discourse of the Russian police with the English was aimed not so much at comparing them objectively as at veiled criticism of the existing political system in Russia. For the Russian pre-revolutionary society, England was an idealized example of a country where the bureaucracy in general and the police in particular do not stand above society and do not interfere with its life and development.