The author of the memoirs is General V. D. Novitsky, a famous figure in political investigation in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. From the position of a professional security guard, privy to many hidden and little-known circumstances, he describes the key moments in the confrontation between the gendarmerie authorities and the revolutionary movement - from the era of “going to the people” to the Socialist Revolutionary terror and the deployment of social democratic propaganda. Many underground figures and their opponents are presented from an unconventional perspective; reflects the evolution of methods of political investigation, right up to the formation of a system of permanent provocation - the main weapon of the secret police at the beginning of the 20th century. For a wide range of readers.© Preface by A. A. Levandovsky, 1991

Reprint from the Priboi publishing house ", 1929.