The Legionnaire. Book One

Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Kalikinsky is a journalist and prose writer, author of historical novels, and a member of the Writers’ Union of Russia. He is widely known for his series of books “Agasfer” — five fascinating spy retro-detectives devoted to the work of counterintelligence in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We present another major work by the author—one of his best, devoted to the fate of a real historical figure. Karl Landsberg, a brilliant officer, slipped and became a criminal, but ultimately, through repentance and many deprivations, he brought a great deal of benefit to our country. There is a version that Landsberg was the prototype of the hero of F. M. Dostoevsky’s famous novel “Crime and Punishment,” Rodion Raskolnikov, although, of course, the biographies of the fictional character and his likely prototype differ significantly. Karl Landsberg shone in the high society of St. Petersburg. He was promised a swift career—even up to the ministerial level. But he fell from the career ladder without reaching even the middle. The dazzling world disappeared behind the blank walls of prison. Following the verdict of the court and society, the criminal world delivered its sentence to Landsberg—the people who today are called “thieves-in-law.” Listen to the first book of the story in audiobook format.