Tsar Nicholas I, 1825-55 (1 дек 1824 г. – 2 март 1855 г.)
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Nicholas gave Count Alexander Benckendorff, the first Head Controller of the Section, few specific instructions, as the Third Section was to act as Russia's “moral and political guardian.
The Third Section occupied itself with the opinions and behavior of Russia’s educated classes: bureaucrats, officers, gentry, courtiers, and later intellectuals. It also became active abroad.
Nicholas saw the officers of the Third Section, the Gendarmes, as domestic ambassadors who listened, if surreptitiously, to the political discussions of everyday Russians. Under Nicholas, the agents of the Third Department were tasked with guiding Russians along the path that the Tsar desired; however, as time went on the Gendarmes gradually became more of a counter-revolutionary force than the “moral physicians” they were founded to serve as.
Under Nicholas I the department was tasked with:
All orders and announcements in all instances of the higher police.
Information concerning the number of various sects and heretical religious groups existing within the state.
Information concerning the distribution of counterfeit money, stamps, documents, etc., the investigation and further prosecution of which is to remain in the jurisdiction of the Ministries of Finance and Internal Affairs.
Detailed information concerning all persons under police surveillance, as ordered.
The exile and arrest of suspicious or dangerous persons.
Economic and supervisory administration of all places of imprisonment in which state prisoners are kept.
All orders and instructions with regard to foreigners living in Russia, traveling in the country, or leaving it.
Information concerning all events, without exception.
Statistical information relating to the police.
The Third Department also took on the role of influencing opinion in the Imperial regime's favor, both in Russia and abroad. One of Count Benckendorff's first actions as Head Controller had been the creation and distribution in English, French, and German translations, of an account of the Decembrist Revolt that presented the Tsar's actions in a positive light to western Europeans.
There are also reports that the Third Section also employed Russians living abroad to not only keep the Section apprised of foreign politics but also to write responses to attacks on Russia published in the foreign press.
Overall, in the wake of the Decemberist revolts, Tsar Nicholas wanted to know what the Russian people were thinking about his regime.
*It was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, that dominated the management of surveillance operations abroad at first.
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