Organization of the legal adviser part in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX century

The relevance of the study is due, firstly, to the peculiarities of the emergence of the legal service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire at the time of the reforms of Alexander II, and secondly, to the incomplete development of this aspect in the historiography of post-reform Russia. The relevance also lies in the interest of the younger generation of lawyers in knowing the origins of the legal service. 
The article deals with the prerequisites for the emergence of the legal service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the second half of the 19th century; substantiation of the need for its creation; activities of committees and commissions to work on this issue; specific personalities involved in the creation of projects and staffing of this service. The functions, duties and activities of the newly formed legal service in the Ministry are being studied. 
The results of the authors’ study showed that the need to create a legal service in the Ministry of the Interior was due to the adoption of new Judicial Statutes on November 20, 1864, which required the separation of administrative power from the judiciary, which required officials who knew law perfectly. It was the legal adviser who was supposed to communicate with the new judiciary in cases relating to the interests of the treasury in order to reduce its losses and protect officials in court, both criminal and civil. Appointed as the first central legal adviser of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, P. T. Kititsyn in 1868 justified the highest trust not only of Minister P. A. Valuev, but also of Alexander II, since already in 1871 he was concurrently appointed legal adviser to the Ministry of the Imperial court, which testifies to his high professionalism and excellent knowledge of the laws of the Russian Empire.