"Michael Strogoff; Or, The Courier of the Czar" by Jules Verne Michael Strogoff, a 30-year-old native of Omsk, is a courier for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Strogoff is sent to Irkutsk to warn the governor about the traitor Ivan Ogareff, a former colonel, who was once demoted and exiled by this brother of the Tsar. He now seeks revenge: he intends to gain the governor's trust and then betray him and Irkutsk to the Tartar hordes. On his way to Irkutsk, Strogoff meets a cast of characters unlike any that he'd ever known including a newspaper editor and a political prisoner.