The article is devoted to the description of individual pages of the bi-ography of a prominent figure in the law enforcement system of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Lieutenant General of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes Ivan Dmitrievich Volkov (1854–1917), a participant in the events related to ensuring the security of the Russian state, and the February Revolution of 1917, which became the final chord not only in the history of the monarchy in Russia, but also in the

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... ife of himself general. The article presents the results of a long-term search for biographical information about I. D. Volkov, who on the eve of the February Revolution held the post of head of the Petrograd provincial gendarme department. The fate of I. D. Volkov, about which there was extremely little information in the scientific literature, is eloquent evidence of the tragedy of the breakdown of the state and global changes in the life of Russia in 1917. Based on the study of sources of various types, the use of methods of system analysis, structuralfunctional and the method of legal comparative studies, materials were studied that made it possible to fill in the gaps in the biography of I. D. Volkov: it was possible to clarify the circumstances of death (date, cause, place) and the place of burial former head of the Petrograd GZhU. The study made it possible to introduce into scientific circulation not only sources that were not previously used by scientists, characterizing the organization and activities of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes and its ranks, but also a portrait of Ivan Dmitrievich Volkov, which will now be an attributed source on the history of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. The portrait of I. D. Volkov was discovered in the fund of P. A. Stolypin of the Saratov Regional Museum of Local Lore and is published in this article for the first time.