Arkady Renko ( Russian: Аркадий Ренко) is a fictional detective who is the central character of ten novels by the American writer

Martin Cruz Smith Martin Cruz Smith, born Martin William Smith (November 3, 1942), is an American writer of mystery and suspense fiction, mostly in an international or historical setting. He is best known for his series featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko ...

.O'Brien, Timothy L. ''The New York Times'' (August 6, 2007)
Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series: A trail of clues to the Russian soul
/ref>Wroe, Nicholas, ''The Guardian'' (March 26, 2005)
Crime Pays
/ref>

Character timeline

In '' Gorky Park'', the first novel, he is a chief investigator for the Soviet

Militsiya ''Militsiya'' ( rus, милиция, 3=mʲɪˈlʲitsɨjə, 5=, ) were the police forces in the Soviet Union until 1991, in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), and in the Non-Aligned Movement, non-aligned Socialist Federal Republic ...

in Moscow, where he is in charge of homicide investigations. In the sequels, he takes on roles varying from a militiaman to a worker on a fish processing ship in the Arctic. Born into the

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...

, Arkady is the son of

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

General Kiril Renko, an unrepentant

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

also known as "the Butcher", who sees Arkady as a bitter failure for choosing the simple life of a policeman over a military career, or even a career in the Communist Party. Arkady was also never able to forgive himself for indirectly and unwittingly helping his mother commit suicide (he helped her gather the rocks she used to drown herself with in the lake at their family estate when he was a young boy). Wary of the official lies of Soviet society, Arkady exposes corruption and dishonesty on the part of influential and well-protected members of the elite, regardless of the consequences. When exposed to Western capitalist society, he finds it to be equally corrupt and returns to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Despite this, and his own tough nature, he emerges as a man capable of displaying both compassion and a faith in the future. The first three books published between 1981 and 1992 form a trilogy culminating with the fall of the Soviet Union, at the

August Coup The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President ...

in 1991. The action in '' Gorky Park'' takes place in the Soviet Union and in the US, '' Polar Star'' on board a Soviet fishing vessel in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

, and ''

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

'' in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and the

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...

-era Soviet Russia. '' Havana Bay'' is set in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

; '' Wolves Eat Dogs'' is set in Moscow and in the areas affected by the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

. '' Stalin's Ghost'', published in 2007, returns Arkady to a Russia now presided over by

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, followed by '' Three Stations'' published in 2010,See, Carolyn, ''Washington Post'' (September 3, 2010)
"Three Stations," the new thriller by Martin Cruz Smith, author of "Gorky Park"
/ref> '' Tatiana'' in 2013, '' The Siberian Dilemma'' in 2019, and ''Independence Square'' in 2023.

The Arkady Renko novels

#'' Gorky Park'' (1981) #'' Polar Star'' (1989) #''

'' (1992) #'' Havana Bay'' (1999) #'' Wolves Eat Dogs'' (2004) #'' Stalin's Ghost'' (2007) #'' Three Stations'' (2010) #'' Tatiana'' (2013) #'' The Siberian Dilemma'' (2019) #''Independence Square'' (2023) #''Hotel Ukraine'' (2025)

Film

In 1983 ''Gorky Park'' was adapted as a film starring William Hurt as Renko.

References

External links

Martin Cruz Smith official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Renko, Arkady Characters in American novels of the 20th century Characters in American novels of the 21st century Literary characters introduced in 1981 Fictional Russian detectives Fictional Russian people in literature Fictional Soviet people Fictional Russian police detectives Fictional police detectives Thriller film characters

Character timeline

The Arkady Renko novels

Film

See also

References

External links