A. Shardin is the pseudonym of the Russian fiction writer Pyotr Petrovich Sukhonin (1821-1884) who, having lost his large fortune at cards, became the manager of an estate in Pavlovsk. He is the author of several major historical novels: “Princess Vladimirskaya (Tarakanova), or Zatsepinsky capitals,” “At the turn of the century” and others. This publication is the first after 1883. The novel, based on rich factual material through the perception of the Zatsepin princes, direct descendants of Rurik, shows palace life, full of intrigue, passions, revolutions, from the regency of the Duke of Courland Biron, the favorite of Empress Anna Ioannovna and the ruler of Russia under the young Emperor Ivan IV, Anna Leopoldovna, to her enthronement the guard of Elizaveta Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, who became the Russian Empress in 1741. The very young Grand Duchess Catherine, in the future Catherine the Great, is also presented here.