MYKHAILO OLEKSANDROVYCH ZHABCHYNSKYI (1863–?) – ONE OF THE FORENSIC SPECIALISTS IN DACTYLOSCOPY OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

The innovative official activity of Mykhailo Oleksandrovych Zhabchynskyi (1863 – after 1919), the head of the
registration bureau of the Warsaw detective department, as well as the branch of the Central Registration Bureau of
the Police Department in Warsaw, has been described in this publication. He was a well-known forensic practitioner
of the early twentieth century, one of the pioneers of application of scientific and technical tools in fingerprint examinations in the police of the Russian Empire, the author of many works on the registration of a criminal element.
Mykhailo Oleksandrovych was the first fingerprint expert who spoke at court hearings in criminal cases (1909–12),
held lectures and classes for law students of the Warsaw University and female lawyers at the Warsaw higher women's
courses (1912). He also taught at the School of Instructors of the Militia State University of the NKVD of the RSFSR
(1918–19). Unfortunately, there is insufficient information about Zhabchynskyi's further fate, and his photo has not
been found. The author states that there are many gaps in Zhabchynskyi's biography which should be investigated by
modern, first of all, Polish colleagues.