Perceptions of the People’s Loyalty to the Throne and the Features of Loyalist Rhetoric in Gendarme Reports of the 1820–1830s (Based on the Material of the Gendarmes’ 2nd District)

This article is devoted to the reconstruction of the gendarme officers’ collective perceptions of the Russian Empire’s territory on the materials about the 2nd gendarme district. The study examined the records of the high police, which reflected the gendarme officers’ ideas about the people’s political loyalty and loyalist sentiments. The study is based on archival documents from the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), as well as pub-lished sources. The author suggests that during this period the gendarmerie officers’ collective ideas about the 2nd gen-darme district were stable and this territory was perceived as a completely loyal region. An analysis of the gendarmerie reports’ rhetoric revealed several stable emotional categories (positive and negative), which were perceived by the 3rd Department as a manifestation of the population’s loyalty to the throne. Positive emotions were expressed through the words: joy, delight, jubilation, tenderness, while negative emotions were conveyed by such words as: despondency, grief and sadness. Both emotional categories were also accompanied by tears of joy and grief. In addition, the documents clearly articulate the connection between the manifestation of certain emotions and confirmation of loyalty to the throne. It might be assumed that within the framework of this “emotional regime” there was no room for silence. In other words, events directly connected with the monarch figure invariably required a certain emotional background. The evaluative categories for the emotional narrative used, as well as a certain metaphorical nature of the language are characteristic features of these gendarme reports. They are characterized by an indication of the degree of reliability, as well as generaliza-tion and extrapolation of ideas about loyalty to the broad masses of the Russian population.