For the heirs of the traditions of the Russian pre-revolutionary intelligentsia, the name of Alexander Khristoforovich Benckendorf personified all the negative aspects of Nikolaev Russia. But looking into the details of the life path of the first chief of the gendarmes of the Russian Empire, you involuntarily find a far from unambiguous personality behind dry facts. A well-born Ostsee close to influential court circles, Benckendorf was a lively and impressionable man. The hero of love novels full of brilliance, a brave and talented cavalry general, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812 and foreign campaigns, he became the creator of a secret police unique in his role, designed to strengthen the foundations of patriarchal statehood, became the closest friend and adviser to Emperor Nicholas I, one of the central figures of the Nikolaev political system.