# The Fall of the Empire

The Fall of the Empire (Russian: Гибель империи, romanized: Gibel' imperii) is a Russian crime, thriller TV miniseries in ten episodes directed and co-written by Vladimir Khotinenko, broadcast in March 2005.
It is set in World War I, following Russian counterintelligence officer Sergei Pavlovich Kostin (Aleksandr Baluev), a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, who works to uncover enemy plots aided by his sidekick Ivan Karlovich Shtol'ts (Marat Basharov).

## Cast
### Main characters of the series

* Alexander Baluev as Captain of counterintelligence Sergei Pavlovich Kostin
* Sergei Makovetsky as Professor of Law, and then the captain of the Army Intelligence Alexander Mikhailovich Nesterovsky
* Maria Mironova as Elena Ivanovna Saburova
* Chulpan Khamatova as Olga Semenovna Nesterovskaya
* Marat Basharov as lieutenant counterintelligence Ivan Karlovich Stolz
* Andrey Krasko as non-commissioned counterintelligence officer Nikolai Alexeyevich Strelnikov

### The real historical figures in the series

* Vladislav Galkin as head of counterintelligence Boris Nikitin
* Sergei Nikonenko as Paul von Rennenkampf
* Alexander Bashirov as Lavr Kornilov
* Fyodor Bondarchuk as Anton Denikin
* Dmitry Pevtsov as Nikolay Dukhonin
* Andrey Nevraev as Emperor Nicholas II
* Andrei Zibrov as Pavel Pereverzev
* Alexander Mezentsev as General Aleksei Brusilov
* Alexey Medvedev as Nikolai Krylenko
* Danil Lavrenov as Leonid Kannegisser
* Alexander Voitov as Moisei Uritsky
* Yuri Tsurilo as Yuri Steklov
* Valentina Kasyanova as Nadezhda Krupskaya
* Victor Smirnov as Colonel Moroz (prototype Viktor Klimenko)
* Mariya Poroshina as socialist revolutionary Maria Kovskaya (prototype Irina Kakhovskaya)
* Stanislav Nikolsky as Semyon Roshal
* Viktor Bychkov as Stepnin, also as Yakov Ganetsky
* Alexander Pashutin as General Grigoriev

### Other characters

* Ivan Agafonov as janitor
* Sergey Astakhov as Karevsky
* Andrey Astrakhantsev as socialist revolutionary Leonid Charny
* Johan Bott as the German soldier Karl
* Gosha Kutsenko as Gibson
* Juozas Budraitis as Kranz
* Axel Buchholz as Stolberg
* Yuri Vasiliev as owner of the cinema "Lotos"
* Viktor Verzhbitsky as Ghanaian
* Sergei Garmash as Sakharov, the prophet "Kassandrov"
* Tatyana Dogileva as hostess of the apartment, Zina's mother
* Sergey Dreyden as Grohovsky
* Aleksei Kravchenko as Staff Captain Rysin
* Yevgeny Leonov-Gladyshev as socialist revolutionary Shilenko
* Alexander Lykov as filmmaker
* Dmitry Maryanov as Captain Bredel
* Darya Moroz as maid Katya
* Daniel Olbrychski as Strombakh
* Sergey Parshin as Ryabikov
* Alexander Pashkov as Mitya, driver (in 3rd and 6th episodes is named Pasha)
* Alexander Polovtsev as Antipov
* Ksenia Rappoport as Alina Gorskaya
* Igor Sklyar as Ricks
* Semyon Strugachyov as Franz Fleishman
* Glafira Tarkhanova as Tanya Zaitseva
* Mikhail Trukhin as Maletsky
* Dmitry Ulyanov as Stetsevich
* Nina Usatova as Zaitseva, Aunt Tanya
* Ville Haapasalo as Tarvilainen
* Konstantin Khabensky as Boris Sergeevich Lozovsky
* Vladimir Khotinenko as Colonel Yakubov
* Mikhail Porechenkov as captain with a white flag (finale of the 8th series, in titles is indicated as ensign)
* André Hennicke as employee of the German embassy, then captain of the German army intelligence Rigert
* Larissa Shakhvorostova as socialist revolutionary Kiseleva
* Dmitriy Shevchenko as socialist revolutionary Semchenko
* Justina Rudite as girl
* Alexander Rublev as soldier (in the episodes "Red Bows" and "Prayer Officer")