''The State Counsellor'' (russian: Статский советник, the 5th civil grade in the

Table of Ranks The Table of Ranks (russian: Табель о рангах, Tabel' o rangakh) was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in 1722 while engaged in a s ...

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

) is the sixth novel in the

Erast Fandorin Erast Petrovich Fandorin (russian: Эраст Петрович Фандорин) is a fictional 19th-century Russian detective and the hero of a series of Russian historical detective novels by Boris Akunin. The first Fandorin novel (''The Winte ...

historical detective series by

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ� ...

. It is subtitled "political detective mystery" (russian: политический детектив). ''The State Counsellor'' was originally published in Russia in 2000. The English translation was published in January 2008.

Plot

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, 1891. Disguised as Fandorin, the leader of a revolutionary organization murders a general. Fandorin has to catch him. He is assisted (or is it hindered?) in his investigations by Prince Pozharsky, a fictional descendant of

Dmitry Pozharsky Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky ( rus, Дми́трий Миха́йлович Пожа́рский, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ pɐˈʐarskʲɪj; 17 October 1577 – 30 April 1642) was a Russian prince known for his military leadershi ...

, who helped bring the

Time of Troubles The Time of Troubles (russian: Смутное время, ), or Smuta (russian: Смута), was a period of political crisis during the Tsardom of Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Fyodor I (Fyodor Ivanovich, the last of the Rurik dy ...

to an end.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 2005, ''The State Counsellor'' was turned into a film starring

Oleg Menshikov Oleg Evgenyevich Menshikov, PAR (russian: Оле́г Евге́ньевич Ме́ньшиков, link=no; born 8 November 1960) is a Russian actor, theatre director and occasional singer. He is the current artistic director of the Yermolova Thea ...

as Fandorin and

Nikita Mikhalkov Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov (russian: Никита Сергеевич Михалков; born 21 October 1945) is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union. Mikhalkov is a three-time laureate of the ...

as Prince Pozharsky. The two-hour theatrical release was then expanded into a 3 hour version which was shown on Russian television. It was one of the most expensive Russian films ever made.

References

External links

Full text
of the novel, in Russian
Official website of the film
(Russian) * ''The State Counsellor'' at th
IMDb
* Collection o
stills
from the film * Russia

on the film, with stills * English-languag

of the film, from ''Variety''
Movie Trailer
an
Screenshots

for the reader 2000 novels Novels by Boris Akunin Novels set in Moscow Fiction set in 1891 Novels set in the 1890s Historical mystery novels Weidenfeld & Nicolson books Russian novels adapted into films 20th-century Russian novels Russian historical novels Russian detective novels Russian political novels {{2000s-mystery-novel-stub