Fingerprints were first mentioned in Russia in 1867 in the book Criminal Prosecution, Inquiry and Investigation of Crimes by Judical Statutes from 1864. The author, A.Kvatchevski, vrote about the possible identification of offenders by the means of fingerprints, but he meant the prints of the hand contours and finger and palm creases. Apparently he did not recognize the possibility of identification by papillary ridge detail.

   Scientific information concerning the use of papillary patterns for identification of people first came to Russia in 1892, after the publication of the book by Sir Francis Galton, Finger Prints. Practically speaking, fingerprint science began to be used only in the first decade of the twentieth century.

   The Moscow Criminal Police began to receive fingerprints in 1900, and the Kiev Police in 1903. These were taken only as an addition to the anthropometric system of Bertillon.

   In 1906, the Central Fingerprint Bureau of the Chief Prison Directorate was opened.

   In 1907 the weekly magazine POLICE BULLETIN was published. The first edition contained an article entitled "What are Fingerprints?" It outlined the fundamental method of fingerprint identification, description of the fingerprinting technique, patterns, classification, and possible problems. The journal ran for nine years and published over 100 articles about fingerprint registration and examination.

   In 1908, the Registration Departments in the Detective Police Bureaus were organized. Shortly thereafter, about 1,000 fingerprint taking kits were made in the St. Petersburg prison workshop. The Bureau printed 10,000 fingerprint cards and a set of rules for taking fingerprints and registering the cards.

   In 1909, the first Russian book on dactyloscopy was published. It was entitled, The Art of Detecting Crime, by one of the founders of Russian dactyloscopy, V.I.Lebedev. It was a manual for practical usage. Part one was devoted to dactyloscopy.

   In 1912, the first Russian Crime Laboratory was formed in St.Petersburg and was named the Bureau of Scientific Forensic Examination. In the years 1913 to 1914, additional bureaus were opened in Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa.

   In 1915, the book, The Foundation of Crime Technique, by S.N.Tregubov was published in St.Petersburg. In this book, the methods and techniques concerning dactyloscopy were explained. And in that same year, two homicides were solved through fingerprint evidence.

   After the Revolution of 1917, the old Imperial system and records were destroyed. On October 10, 1918, the Central Detective Office of the Russian Federation sent out directions about the necessary of fingerprinting criminals.

   In 1919, the Fingerprint Bureau in the Central Detective Office of the USSR was founded.

   One of the most famous and important people of Russian dactyloscopy was Pyotr Sergeevich Semenovsky (born 1883 died 1959). He was educated in forensic medicine, and worked as a professional criminalist.

   In 1920, Semenovskiy produced a classification system of the papillary patterns based on the Galton-Henry classification foundation. The purpose of producing this classification was to modify the Henry formulas to be compatible with the Russian cardindex filing system. This system, with some additional modifications, is still used in Russia today. The main work by Semenovskiy was the book published in 1923, Dactyloscopy as a Method of Registration.

   In 1923, there were already 58 Crime Detective Dactyloscopy Registration Bureaus in the USSR, and by 1927, there were 358. There were massive files of over 400,000 fingerprint cards at that time in the Central Bureau.

   In 1932, the Bureau of Examination merged with the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department. In 1941, it was transformed into the Scientific Technique Department.

   From 1930 to 1950, progressive development of the Forensic Examination Laboratory system, concerning dactyloscopy investigations,took place.

   In 1944, the Central Criminalistic Laboratory of the People's Komissariat of Justice was formed. Now it is the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice.

   In 1945, the Scientific Research Criminalistic Institute of the USSR Ministry of the Interior (MVD) was organized/ Since 1991, its functions are carried out by the MVD Expert Criminalistic Center of Russia.