Militsiya

The name militsiya as applied to police forces originates from a Russian Provisional Government decree dated April 17, 1917, and from early Soviet history: both the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks intended to associate their new law-enforcement authority with the self-organisation of the people and to distinguish it from the czarist police.

Eventually, it was replaced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian: МВД, MVD; Ukrainian: МВС, MVS; Belarusian: МУС, MUS), which is now the official full name for the militsiya forces in the respective countries.

Their functions and organisation differ significantly from similarly named departments in Western countries, which are usually civil executive bodies headed by politicians and responsible for many other tasks as well as the supervision of law enforcement.

The Soviet and successor MVDs have usually been headed by a militsiya general and predominantly consist of service personnel, with civilian employees only filling auxiliary posts.

Although the latter word is offensive (it literally means "trash" or "garbage"), it originated from an acronym for the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department (Russian: МУС, romanized: MUS, short for Russian: Московский уголовный сыск, romanized: Moskovskiy ugolovnyy sysk) in Imperial Russia.

[2] The following countries have changed the name of the police force from Militsiya (or equivalent) to a western-style name analogous to "police": Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Russia and Ukraine.

[3] The police are still called militsiya in Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

Neither uniformed officers nor detectives are allowed to drive police vehicles themselves,[citation needed] so a specialist driver (either a serviceman or a civil employee) is assigned to each car and is also in charge of its maintenance.

[5] However, this refers only to fully marked police vehicles with emergency lights; detectives are allowed to drive civilian cars with are registered to the MVD, having white number plates (marked police vehicles have blue plates) with specific series (for example, o...vo, o...rr, o...mm, o...om).

GIBDD (the traffic militsiya) is the only exception: its members drive their own (or even own private) cars and are specially trained in risk-driving.

Uchastkovyi is also responsible for tackling minor offences like family violence, loud noise, residential area parking etc.

Uchastkovyi is also the main, and actually the real, militsiya force in remote areas and small settlements where permanent police departments are not created.

Uchastkovyi militsioners possess separate small offices within their quarters and maintain citizens admittance in definite weekdays.

Uchastkovyi is neither a chief police officer in a given community nor a universal one (not combining detective, incarceration or special tactics tasks).

The system of uchastkovyis dates back to imperial times when uriadniks were conducting lowest-level policing in rural areas.

In Soviet Union, uchastkovyis were also responsible for such tasks as maintaining propiska limitations and overseeing former political prisoners, which were subject to daily registration at the local MVD office.

The Internal Troops and SMChMs are the gendarmerie-like military force who can be assigned to carry out simple public security tasks like patrolling while being accompanied by professional militsioners, or cordoning large crowds at sport events, concerts, and protests.

[12] In 2016 its name was changed to "Communal Militsya" (Serbian: "Komunalna Milicija" "Комунална Милиција") under which it continues to operate to the current day.

Examples included Bulgaria (Peoples' Militia), Poland (Milicja Obywatelska) and other Warsaw Pact nations, as well as the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia (Milicija), which was phased out throughout the 1990s and replaced by policija (police) in early 1997.