Emperor All-Russian Nicholas I (1796-1855) - one of the key figures of Russian history, the tsar, who made for the greatness and power of the Russian Empire no less than his great predecessors - Peter I and Catherine II. He became the embodiment of the ruler of a new type and new - in every sense of the iron - XIX century. Before the modern reader, the entire dramatic, but surprisingly consistent sovereign path of this outstanding ruler will unfold: from a young man who is not yet quite confident in himself, but already forced to make fateful decisions, who, by chance, received the reins of monarch's rule, to a mature statesman holding the reins of government with a confident and iron hand a huge country.