One of the darkest places in Russian history is the rise of the Romanov boyars, the consolidation of power at the highest levels, and the struggle with the Godunovs. Even more obscured is the role played by the Romanovs in the Troubles itself, which brought their dynasty to the royal throne. And it was not because Russian historians avoided these topics because they did not have the materials. There were more than enough materials. Historians knew that Filaret, the father of Tsar Michael, received the metropolitan rank from the hands of False Dmitry I, and False Dmitry II made him patriarch. It was also known to historians that when the militia of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and citizen Minin stormed the Kremlin, all the Romanovs and the future Tsar, including, were not with the people’s militia, but on the other side of the Kremlin wall, together with the besieged Poles. About these shameful silences and omissions and the book of Nikolai Konyaev tells. Reading it is not just a fascinating activity, but also useful and even necessary, because by covering the blind spots of our history, the writer helps us understand some of the events of current history.