Andrei Konstantinov (1963–2023) — a Russian journalist, writer, screenwriter, publicist, social activist, founder and editor-in-chief of the "Agency for Journalistic Investigations". A recognized master of the crime genre, one of the leading experts on crime in the post-Soviet space. The author of not only the most popular crime novels such as "Journalist", "Thief", "Composer", "Specialist", "Tula - Tokarev", "Rota", "Own - Stranger", "If Someone Can Hear Me" and others, but also nonfiction publications. Among them is the textbook "Journalistic Investigation: History of the Method and Modern Practice", which reveals the main questions of the methodology of journalistic investigation, and the author's main documentary research — the book "Bandit Petersburg", which Andrei Konstantinov wrote and supplemented over thirty years.
"…in some sense, the book ‘Bandit Petersburg’ for me — is an endless literary-research servitude, making it harder each year to find the strength within myself to continue the work... And still, it seems to me that the theme of ‘Bandit Petersburg’, while not as ‘speculatively relevant’ as it was in the nineties of the last century, remains interesting... The stories of many heroes are unfinished, and therefore — untold. So the book is still not finished".
A. Konstantinov