“There is no place more boring and more magnificent than the courtyard of the Russian emperor.” This is how foreign ambassadors wrote about the imperial court at the beginning of the 19th century. Luxurious and brilliant, living according to strict laws, the whole world inside the royal palace was accessible only to a select few. Here everything went according to the ceremony: the order of greetings and serving of dishes, smiles and small talk... But, as you know, nothing human is alien to the powers that be. And under the masks prescribed in the protocols, dramas of unrequited love, hidden hatred, madness and the eternal choice between desire and duty were played out. The new book by Leonid Vyskochkov opens doors that are locked for mere mortals to the reader and invites everyone to the court of the emperor.