The book is dedicated to the Order of Secret Affairs. Orders are central government bodies that existed in Russia in the 16th - early 18th centuries. Orders were permanent institutions and were directly subordinate to the Tsar and the Boyar Duma. Among the Moscow orders, a special place was occupied by the Order of the Great Sovereign of Secret Affairs, created by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1654, but very little is known about him. Historians have made various judgments about this institution. V.N. Tatishchev saw in him a semblance of the Spanish Inquisition, N.I. Kostomarov considered him a prototype of the secret police.