Based on numerous archival materials, the book tells about the extraordinary fate of the outstanding Russian intelligence officer - Colonel of the General Staff, Count Pavel Alekseevich Ignatiev. At the end of 1915, he was sent personally by Emperor Nicholas II to Paris to help his brother, the Russian military attache, then colonel, and then major general Alexei Alekseevich Ignatiev. He was faced with the task of establishing an exchange of information with the intelligence services of other Entente countries and creating an agent network of Russian military intelligence in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Pavel Ignatiev coped with the task brilliantly - an intelligence network was created, a lot of important secret information was collected, and most importantly, Russian military intelligence survived a difficult fight with the German and Austrian espionage aces Walter Nicolai and Maximilian Ronge.