Book by the famous historian V.G. Sirotkin is dedicated to the difficult relations between France and Russia on the eve of the War of 1812. The author examines issues that were raised during personal negotiations and in secret correspondence between the French Emperor Napoleon I and the Russian Tsar Alexander I. All this resembled a duel in which both sides were ready to fight to the end. According to the author, the personal confrontation between the two emperors was also dramatic because it could have ended in an alliance between Russia and France, and not in a brutal war.