Memoirs of a Gendarme

The library of the project "History of the Russian State" features the best monuments of world literature recommended by Boris Akunin, reflecting the biography of our country from its very origins. Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovich (1873–1952) was a major general of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, serving in Moscow and as the head of the Kiev security departments. Spiridovich's memoirs cover the period from the moment he entered the Arakcheev Cadet Corps (1891) until the revolutionary events of 1905. He was a trusted person of the sovereign, overseeing the protection of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in Russia and during foreign trips. His recollections detail how the tsarist security operated with secret agents and how terrorist conspiracies of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Social Democrats, "People’s Will," etc., were uncovered. "Memoirs of a Gendarme" were classified as "Secret" and were published for the first time only after 1917 in Berlin.