In the 18th century, a specialized security service or political police first appeared in Russia: the Preobrazhensky Prikaz and the Secret Office of Peter I, the Secret Investigation Office of the times of Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna, the Secret Expedition of the Senate under Catherine II and Paul I. All of them investigated crimes state, and therefore reported directly to the monarch and acted in secrecy. However, the fight against high treason, impostors and spies was only part of their work - their main concern was insults to the personality of the sovereign and all kinds of “indecent words” addressed to the authorities. The heroes of this book are campaigners and defendants, witnesses and executioners, well-intentioned informers and convinced scoundrels. Based on numerous documents, the authors described the entire path of their “walk through torment” - from an anonymous denunciation or “providing the sovereign’s word and deed” to the investigation, Siberian exile or the chopping block.