The Fall of the Empire

The Fall of the Empire (Гибель империи) is a Russian TV miniseries in ten episodes directed 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).

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")