The profession of politics, like politics itself, has existed since time immemorial and will only disappear along with humanity. Therefore, people who chose it as their life’s work and influenced the course of history invariably arouse interest. They professed different principles in their activities: “the father of lies” and “a walking collection of all vices” Charles Talleyrand and “an example of a worthy life” Benjamin Franklin; virtuoso of the political game Cardinal Richelieu and “the greatest Englishman of his time” Winston Churchill, the ruthless dictator Mao Zedong and the spiritual shepherd of 850 million Catholics, Pope John Paul II... All of them were extraordinary personalities, arbiters of the destinies of countries and peoples, political geniuses who changed the world. The reader of this book will be interested to know not only how these people ended up at the top of the political Olympus, how they achieved seemingly unattainable goals, but also what they were like in childhood, their habits and character traits, because, as the political thinker N Machiavelli: “A wise man should choose the paths laid by the greatest men and imitate the most worthy, so that if he is not equal to them in valor, then at least he will be filled with its spirit.”