About the book: 1996 / The collection by N.V. Nikitin (pseudonym Azovets) "The underworld and its defenders" tells about the most high-profile criminal trials Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, conducted by famous Russian lawyers. The book, which depicts life without embellishment, with its passions, grief, suffering, was greeted with interest by readers and critics. We present it to the reader in a new edition. The book is published for the first time since 1910.