The Secret Advisor of Ivan the Terrible: The Adventures of Deacon Fyodor Smirny

Summer of 1560. Moscow. The Kremlin. Everything is in disarray in the Grand Palace. Our sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible is in deep turmoil. The tsarina Anastasia Romanovna is fading away from an inexplicable illness. The princes are sharpening their knives! There is treason among the boyars! There is sorcery among the scholars! There is heresy among the priests! You may say this is the ramblings of a sick ruler? But here is an assassination attempt - right in the monastery among the holy relics! - how is that?! Who will save the sovereign? The boyar council? The стрелецкий полк? The old metropolitan? Perhaps our loyal Russian people will rise for their beloved monarch? But he is the first under suspicion! The only thing left is to call upon God! And there is no answer there either... But look, the monastery boy is saying clever things! And it somehow becomes simpler and easier. The ghosts retreat. The enemy's cunning crumbles to dust. Do you see, sovereign, who has the power? It is with the simple people: with the loyal hounds, with the minor courtiers, with the blond boy... Come here, lad!.. Thus began the amazing adventurous years of service of Deacon Fyodor Smirny of the Grand Palace...