Forty Years Among Killers and Robbers

If there was a Sherlock Holmes in the Russian Empire, it was Ivan Dmitrievich Putilin (1830–1893) — the first head of the Petersburg detective police. Long before the first novels and stories of Conan Doyle were published, the genius of Russian investigation practiced the so-called "deductive method." Like Holmes, Putilin often disguised himself: in the guise of a laborer or a vagabond, he infiltrated the most dangerous places of the criminal world in then Petersburg. In addition to his analytical and artistic talents, Ivan Dmitrievich possessed an extraordinary gift for storytelling. The book "Forty Years Among Killers and Robbers" is based on real criminal cases he investigated and has undergone numerous reprints. It can be confidently asserted that no contemporary work of literature or cinema created in the genre of "retro detective" has been without reference to the original source — Putilin's book, which immerses readers in the life of the imperial capital.