Sofya Makarova (1834–1887) was a Russian writer and teacher, author of several historical stories and about thirty collections of stories for children. Her novel “The Terrible Cloud” (1886) was last published in St. Petersburg in 1912 (7th edition) for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. The novel is dedicated to the fateful events and difficult trials that befell Russia in 1812, when Napoleon's army hung over the Fatherland like a menacing cloud. The system of heroes, originally conceived and elegantly embodied by the author in images, allows the reader to look at that distant war from two sides - French and Russian. This truly epic work is read with great interest, captivating with its truthfulness and liveliness of presentation.