West and East, mutual attraction and mutual repulsion of their cultures - in the book by A.V. Chudinov examines this topic using the example of the history of spiritual formation and joint wanderings of two outstanding political figures of France and Russia - J. Romm (1750–1795) and P.A. Stroganov (1772–1817). Teacher and student, they spent eleven years together, had a common circle of reading and acquaintances, traveled together throughout Russia and Western Europe, studying the economy, traditions, customs of different peoples and meeting outstanding representatives of the culture of the Enlightenment, together participated in the events of the first two years of the French Revolution 18th century Subsequently, each of them had the opportunity to try out jointly acquired ideas in the political life of their country: Romm as one of the leading figures of the Convention in 1792–1795, Stroganov as the closest associate of Alexander I, an ideologist and an active participant in liberal reforms in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century c. Conducted on the basis of a wide range of materials from Russian, Italian and French archives, the research of A.V. Chudinova allows, using a specific example of two prominent historical characters, to compare the features of the refraction of the ideas of the Western European Enlightenment in the public consciousness and political culture of France and Russia.