Petr Nikolaevich Petrov (1827–1891) - Russian art historian, writer, art critic, genealogist, bibliographer, author of historical novels and stories; full member of the Imperial Archaeological Society, titular adviser. He analyzed historical acts, as well as various materials on Russian history and archeology. He contributed to the Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary, where he wrote about 300 articles on art and Russian history, and was also one of the editors of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. Currently, Petrov is best known for his two-volume publication “History of the Family of the Russian Nobility” (1856). His books “Special Notes on Genealogy and Heraldry” (1871), “History of St. Petersburg for 1703–1782” are also of certain value. (1885) and especially research on the history of Peter the Great’s time “Essay on the Life of Peter the Great” (1872). The main character of the novel “The Tsar’s Court”, presented in this volume, is the young nobleman Osorin, who falls into the Tsar’s guardsmen and finds himself in the thick of the bloody events of the conquest of Novgorod .