About the book: 2013 / In the book of the famous writer Lev Berdnikov, scenes from the past of Russia of the 18th century appear: the orgy of the Most Jocular, Most Drunken and Extravagant Council, where Peter the Great ruled the ball; clownish funeral of dwarfs; reading of majestic sonnets at the Court of Empress Anna Ioannovna; hilarious masquerades - “metamorphoses” of the autocratic fashionista Elizaveta Petrovna. The author traces the fate of a whole galaxy of heroes of bygone times, with names both loud and completely forgotten today. Attention is also paid to the conquest by Russian poets of the whimsical “solid” form of the sonnet, which they perceived as a victory over difficulty. The laurels of this victory - mastery of the artistic experience of Europe, adjusted for Russian tastes and traits, for Russian self-confidence - were thought of as the rise of the Fatherland. A book about those who contributed to the development of Russian culture and enriched it extraordinarily, partly preparing what it now has right to be proud.