Among the heroines of this book are Grand Duchess Olga and Empress Catherine II, French Queen Anna of Russia and Empress "Holy Roman Empire" Eupraxia, predecessor of the Decembrists Countess Ekaterina Golovkina and prototype "The Queen of Spades" - Princess Natalya Golitsyna, artists of the imperial theaters Elizaveta Sandunova, Ekaterina Semenova and Avdotya Istomina, beauties of the Pushkin circle Anna Kern and Alexandra Smirnova-Rosset, Lermontov's first love - Natalia Ivanova... Writer and historian Vladislav Petrov brought together facts that were previously scattered and known only to specialists, and by took a fresh look at the textbook images of famous Russian women.