Official badge "Zemsky telegraph guard"

The original sign is in good collector's condition. Brass, stamping. Size 75*93 mm. Quite rare. Guarantee of authenticity.

Zemstvo guards — law enforcement agencies (protection of public order, security and deanery), for the local police service, in pre-revolutionary Russia (Russian Empire), subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and governors-General. The Zemstvo guard consisted of officers and lower ranks; the latter were called guards and were assigned to the service by governors from retired and reserve lower ranks. The retired, who entered the zemstvo guard, retained the pension they received; the spare, when the army was mobilized, were not required to serve with their units. Local natives among the lower ranks of the zemstvo guards could not be more than one tenth. Each county of the Kingdom of Poland, in police terms, was divided into sections; each section consisted of a team of one senior (salary 200 rubles) and several junior guards (salary 120 rubles and 40 rubles for uniforms), foot and horse. Separate teams of the zemstvo guards were established for the provincial cities, as well as for the cities of Vloclavsk and Czestochowa, with their immediate surroundings. The Zemstvo guard had as its task the protection of order and general security and the execution of police orders, as well as the legal requirements of the city and gmin authorities. The law stipulated that the ranks of the zemstvo guards, neither personally nor in their official activities, were in any subordination to the burgomasters and voits; at the same time, they were prohibited from interfering in the public and economic affairs of cities, towns, rural gminas and societies, and in the actions of the gmin court. When the ranks of the zemstvo guards performed their official duties, they enjoyed the rights of sentries.