The Namesake. Chambermaid

Summer 1740. St. Petersburg is restless. Empress Anna Ioannovna is ill, and the doctors fear for her life, which means that the ground is slipping from under the regent Biron's feet, so he hurriedly strengthens his own power—trying to buy off those who waver with money and ranks, while throwing enemies, even imaginary ones, into dungeons. Any person, even one remote from politics, can end up in a fortress on a false denunciation. This is what happens to the young nobleman Lvov, who, having escaped from arrest, is forced to become a namesake, that is, to take on a foreign, German name, but Lvov's fate still entirely depends on the outcome of the struggle for the throne, which will soon become vacant.
This is the plot of the novel «The Namesake», and a peculiar addition to this story is the tale «Chambermaid», where the action unfolds in the autumn of 1740, after the death of Anna Ioannovna.