The personality of the third Russian Tsar from the Romanov dynasty has rarely attracted the attention of historians. Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682) ascended the throne at the age of fourteen, and died before reaching the age of twenty-one. At the same time, he was ill for most of his short reign (even in adolescence, the prince received a serious spinal injury). He did not leave an heir of his own, and his death was marked by a terrible Streltsy uprising, as a result of which his sister Princess Sophia took power in the country. But here’s what’s surprising: during the six years of his reign, a lot was done: localism was destroyed, the most important reforms in the field of education and culture began. Russia was in vital need of change, and the tsar clearly understood this when he began the “soft”, gradual Europeanization of the country. As the author of the book, the famous historian Dmitry Volodikhin, shows, this was a real alternative to the deafening, terrible, “bone-crushing” Europeanization of Russia, subsequently carried out by Fyodor’s younger brother Peter the Great. Who knows, if Fyodor Alekseevich had lived longer, the country would have avoided one of the most difficult pages in its history.