The historical novels of Lev Zhdanov (1864 - 1951) - popular before the revolution and until recently unknown to us - again won the reader with their action-packed, complex psychological narrative about the life of Russia from Ivan IV to Nicholas II. Russian sovereigns appear in them as living people, suffering, loving, and experiencing the pain of disappointment. The events of the novels “Under the Power of the Favorite” and “In the Networks of Intrigue” are separated in time by half a century: in one, the knot of intricacies around the “two Annas” is depicted, in the other, more sophisticated games of the court of the young Tsarevich Alexander Pavlovich are depicted, but they are united in essence - not a monarch rules his subjects, and the crafty and greedy circle rules the monarch, his love, and the country. With the scrupulousness of a scientist, the author traced the behind-the-scenes moves and loops of high-ranking mystifiers.