The book about General N. S. Batyushin, the ancestor of the Russian special services, includes his work "Secret military intelligence and the fight against it," memories of the cadet years, as well as archival documents and materials, most of which are published for the first time. N. S. Batyushin on the eve of the First World War laid the organizational foundations of Russian intelligence and counterintelligence, developed the basic principles of the ideology of the new power bodies in peacetime and wartime. During the war years, N. S. Batyushin headed these specific structures of the Army, led the activities of intelligence and counterintelligence officers, headed a commission investigating facts of corruption in the rear that directly influenced the course of the armed struggle.