This love had no right to exist and was prohibited - the love of monarchs and mere mortals. But the passion that arises for someone else’s wife or husband is a hundredfold greater tragedy for those who are invested with power and elevated to its pinnacle - to the throne! And now, at the foot of the throne, a love affair arises that cannot be kept secret. It becomes a source of countless gossip and rumors, becomes overgrown with incredible speculations, is condemned... and evokes sympathy in the souls of those who themselves have loved and know the irresistible power of forbidden passion! Ivan the Terrible's mother Elena Glinskaya and her lover, Prince Ivan Obolensky-Telepnev-Ovchina, Empress Catherine the Great and Alexander Lanskoy, Nicholas II and Matilda Kshesinskaya - read the stories of their love and passion in Elena Arsenyeva's short stories...