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 “The Petersburg Action,” the end 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.