On these pages you will find a fascinating story dedicated to the era of palace coups in Russia. This most interesting period in the history of the country is also called the “era of women's power.” Three empresses and one regent ruled the great power for thirty-seven years. Despite the dissimilarity of the destinies of Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna, Anna Leopoldovna and Elizaveta Petrovna, they were united by one thing: in domestic and foreign policy, they were most often guided only by personal feelings and whims. The talented novelist and famous biographer Henri Troyat talks about the fate of these queens, who had a great influence on the formation of the Russian state, but remained little known: they were eclipsed by the glory of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, who inherited the throne from them. The author recreates a living and vivid picture of Russia in the 18th century - an empire that rested on the power of arms and women.