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 publication of the first stories by Conan Doyle, the genius of Russian detection practiced the so-called "deductive method." Just like Holmes, Putilin often disguised himself: dressed as a laborer or a vagabond, he infiltrated the most dangerous places of the criminal world of then Petersburg. In addition to his analytical and artistic talents, Ivan Dmitrievich possessed the remarkable gift of storytelling. The book "Forty Years Among Killers and Robbers" is based on genuine criminal cases investigated by him and has undergone numerous reprints. It can be confidently stated that no modern literary or cinematic work created in the genre of "retro-detective" has been without reference to the original source — the Putilin book, which immerses readers in the life of the imperial capital.