In the book of the famous writer Lev Berdnikov, scenes from the past of Russia of the 18th century appear: orgies of the Most Holy, Most Drunk and Madcap Cathedral, where Peter the Great ruled; clownish funerals of dwarfs; reading the great 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 the past, with names and loud, and completely forgotten now. Attention was paid to the conquest by Russian poets of the whimsical "solid" form of the sonnet, which was perceived by them as a victory over difficulty. The laurels of this victory - mastering the artistic experience of Europe, adjusted for Russian tastes and traits, for Russian self-belief - were thought of as the rise of the Fatherland. The book is about those who contributed to the development of Russian culture and enriched it unusually, partly preparing what it now has the right to be proud of.