Under the Sign of Amur. The Call of Amur

19 hrs. 55 min.

Language Russian

Author Stanislav Fedotov

Narrator Yury Gurzhiy

Description

Benefit, glory, honor. To be an “instrument of power” isn’t so easy

At eighteen, a junior officer; at thirty-eight, governor-general of Eastern Siberia—the master of half of Russia, from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean. From his youth, N. N. Muravyov’s life motto became the lines from G. R. Derzhavin’s poem “The Nobleman”: “All his thoughts, words, deeds must be: benefit, glory, honor.” And he saw himself, according to Derzhavin as well, as “an instrument of power.”

The general—though not having earned his title and orders on the parquet—began in civilian life an open war against corrupt officials, bribe-takers and embezzlers, thieving merchants and gold industrialists. This cost him not only denunciations to the capital, but also direct attempts on his life. At the same time, he strives by all means to ease the lives of the Decembrists, helps Captain Nevelskoy in the exploration of the Amur estuary, and fights the schemes of English and French spies. He doesn’t suspect that this struggle is mixed with a burning personal hatred for him by two of his deadly enemies—Henri, once the beloved of his wife Catherine, and Voguul, offended by him former legionnaire. But beside the general there are reliable allies from different ranks—and, above all, love guides him through life and helps him in his affairs.