The name of the Russian novelist Evgeniy Andreevich Salias de Tournemire (1840–1908), known to contemporaries as Count Salias, was forgotten for the long post-October years. A master of action-packed historical and adventurous storytelling, who reflected the turbulent 18th century in his work, he introduced his own understanding of events into historical fiction. Based on unofficial sources, on knowledge of family archives and legends, his works are a contact with genuine, living life. The novel “Petersburg Action”, the beginning of which is published in this volume, reveals all the ins and outs of the Guards conspiracy of 1762, which brought Catherine II to the throne. The multifaceted court world around Peter III and Catherine is described in lush, colorful scenes. But it is not only the strict historical sequence of the plot and the characters of the characters that attracts the novel. Like Alexandre Dumas, Salias introduces fictitious heroes into the narrative, and through their destinies the greater life of the country enters the narrative, depending on the chance of this or that accession.