This book is for those who want to know more, and are bored of sitting in libraries, rummaging through dusty archives. It does not at all pretend to be exceptionally accurate or completely objective. It is impossible to talk about the 18th century completely objectively. This era is full of grandiose achievements and great people, each of whom was by no means an angel in real life. Palace coups took place one after another, rulers and rulers were replaced on the throne, and their favorites were next to them. Very heterogeneous opinions formed about people who were truly great even during their lifetime. Opposing parties sought to denigrate their opponents; someone would throw out a bad word, and then it would be picked up, and the negative reputation would grow, remaining for centuries. Some time ago, even the word “temporary worker,” which simply means a favorite under a particular ruler, sounded like a dirty word. What to do with those temporary workers to whom Russia owes its great past, victories in wars, majestic buildings and the work of many scientists, artists, writers? The Orlov brothers were precisely such temporary workers, and we tried to describe each of them without embellishment, without hiding either the good or the bad in their actions. Each of the five Orlovs distinguished themselves in a special type of activity; Everyone has encountered in their lives a variety of people and circumstances that are certainly worth mentioning.