The complex and contradictory process of formation of police control and supervision among the rural population in Russia in the XVIII — first half of the XIX centuries is considered. It is emphasized that in the conditions of serfdom and the weak development of the police system in the XVIII century. The «patrimonial justice» acted as a compensatory mechanism for police control over the rural population. The conclusions are formulated that the police functions of the local nobility were derived from their private land ownership rights and the results of the state policy of attaching peasants to the land; The establishment and development of the zemstvo police was a compromise in the contradiction between the interests of the state, which sought to strengthen local government and establish police control over society as a whole, and the nobility with its claims to the rights and privileges of ownership of land and peasants.
law enforcement, zemstvo police, serfdom, Nizhny Zemsky court, police state, Russian Empire
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