Cardinal Richelieu is perhaps the most famous French politician in Russia, but the true Richelieu is not known to us. Meanwhile, this man four centuries ago largely determined the appearance of modern Europe. In less than twenty-two years, he became a bishop, and fifteen years later a cardinal, but he became famous not at all for serving the Catholic Church. He easily exchanged the cassock for military armor and, if the interests of the church were contrary to the interests of France, without a shadow of a doubt chose France. He was equally feared and hated by both aristocrats and the people, but it was he who became one of the main creators of France's victory in the Thirty Years War, founded the French Academy, established religious peace in the country, without which the French could never have taken place as a single nation.