The 18th century is the most mysterious and fascinating period in the history of Russia. He reveals to us the most curious and often unexpected pages of that glorious era, when the lines between performance and life itself are blurred, when everything turns into a big costume ball with its intrigues and palace secrets. The fates of a whole galaxy of heroes of bygone times are traced, with big names and completely forgotten now. At the same time, even familiar characters - Peter I, Franz Lefort, Alexander Menshikov, Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine II, Ivan Shuvalov, Pavel I - are shown as daring trendsetters of a new fashion and a new form of behavior. Peter the Great tried to introduce the European way of life on Russian soil. But it was difficult for him to settle in: everything sometimes looked funny and absurd. The curious wedding processions that carried the young couple to certain death in the ice house, the festivities arranged in a clownish manner - all this smacked of barbarity and cruelty. Why this happened, read in the book of historian and cultural scientist Lev Berdnikov.