This book tells about the most grandiose events of the century - the Patriotic War of 1812, the uprising on Senate Square in St. Petersburg, the liberation of Russian peasants from serfdom, and much more. And what amazing people determined the face of the century - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the fearless Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, the selfless wives of the Decembrists and ordinary people who worked in those years.