ABSTRACT
Colonel Alexander Mikhailovich Eremin assumed the post of chief of the Tiflis Okhrana at the beginning of January 1908, at the age of 35. He was born in 1872 to a family of Ural Cossacks and, after receiving a traditional military education in cavalry and officer schools, was appointed in 1903 to the Corps of Gendarmes and served as a staff officer in Okhrana Sections in several cities.1 In 1905 Eremin was appointed acting chief of the Kiev Okhrana, replacing Colonel Spiridovich, who had been seriously wounded in a terrorist attack. This turned out to be a fateful appointment, starting his rapid promotion within the Okhrana and leading to his eventual encounter with Koba. Eremin’s involvement with the case of the Maximalist Solomon Ryss in 1906 gave him the opportunity to meet in person the director of the Department of Police, Trusevich, who transferred him to the Special Section of the Department of Police at St Petersburg. The Special Section was the Okhrana’s virtual nerve center, a clearing house for its operations throughout the empire.
