The work “Malyuta Skuratov” became the first historical novel by Nikolai Heinze. In the center of the story is the cruel favorite of the formidable Tsar Ivan IV, who terrifies his contemporaries - Grigory Skuratov-Belsky, nicknamed Malyuta Skuratov. The Tsar's guardsman, inflamed with passion for the daughter of a venerable princely family, is trying to take possession of her, indiscriminately, shedding the blood of innocent people. Deeply revealing the true motives of Malyuta’s recklessness, the author gives human traits to the image of a dark personality in Russian history.