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PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — A. A. Efimov. THE INITIAL STAGE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT IN PALACE CITIES: STAGECOACHES AND OMNIBUSES IN THE 1830S — EARLY 1850S

The article addresses one of the important issues of the existence of palace towns in the 19th century, highlighting the initial stage of public transport development in these settlements. In relation to the period under consideration, the author recognizes stagecoaches and omnibuses owned by companies or private entrepreneurs as such. The article notes that until the 1830s, multi-seat carriages operated only for trips between the capital, St. Petersburg and the nearest residences, Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof. The main player in this field was the Society of the Initial Establishment of Stagecoaches, founded in 1820, which worked in both directions. At the same time, it also had local competitors. The opening of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway in the autumn of 1837 created serious competition for the Company, but entrepreneurs responded promptly, opening in 1838 a service between Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo to replace the route from the capital, which had become unprofitable. In the following decade and a half, several new entrepreneurs appeared in the sphere of stagecoach service, organizing trips along the already mentioned routes St. Petersburg — Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg — Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo — Gatchina, and opening a service between Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, as well as intracity transportation, in Tsarskoye Selo to the railway station, and in Peterhof — to the steamship pier. The progressive development of railway service by the 1850s increasingly complicated the existence of stagecoach service. At the same time, officials, on the one hand, tightened the conditions for entrepreneurs, ordering the Gatchina — Tsarskoye Selo line to synchronize the frequency of arrival and departure of crews with the train schedule, and on the other hand, they tried to prevent the complete ruin of already operating entrepreneurs, limiting competition in the conditions of unstable passenger flow, which did not guarantee significant income even for the only transporter.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. A. Efimov. THE ISSUE OF ESTABLISHMENT THE INSTITUTION OF JUDICIAL INVESTIGATORS IN PALACE TOWNS

The article addresses one of the problems of the administrative history of palace towns of the mid-19 th century. The author notes that these settlements had a special status in the Russian Empire. They were under the jurisdiction of special institutions of the Ministry of the Imperial Court — palace boards, being largely outside the general system of public administration and local self-government. This special status gave them a certain independence and even the opportunity to engage in some opposition when deciding on the applicability of certain administrative innovations. As noted in the article, this observation also applies to the issue of introducing the institution of forensic investigators. In a significant part of the provinces they began their work soon after the signing of the corresponding decree in the early summer of 1860. The author draws attention to the fact that in the palace towns only in August the question was raised about the possibility of these officials acting on their territory. As the article notes, representatives of the local administration of Peterhof were somewhat enthusiastic about the idea of outsourcing some of the work that fell to the city police, which was considered overloaded. At the same time, the boundaries of the participation of judicial investigators in the proceedings were also specified. In Tsarskoe Selo the situation was different. Despite the declared readiness to transfer the investigative work, officials of the Tsarskoye Selo city police, under various organizational and bureaucratic pretexts, delayed this process. The author notes that in the end, to resolve this issue, the intervention of the St. Petersburg provincial government was required. The latter had to issue an order with direct reference to the imperial decree on the transfer of cases subject to criminal proceedings to a judicial investigator.