Yakov Ivanovich de Sanglen (1776–1864), or in another form Jacques de Sanglen, lived a long, eventful, stormy life that begs to be turned into a novel—or even into an entire series of novels.
First of all, he was a spy: a virtuoso of detection. In fact, he effectively created the structure of the Russian secret police. De Sanglen organized an extensive network of agents and actively engaged in hunting spies (1812–1816). These few years, in essence, formed the basis of Yakov’s (Jacques’s) reputation as a spy.