Rumors in the Empire

Even the most ridiculous and absurd rumors have everyday roots. Jealousy, a way to explain the unknown, or a sly tool for control - if you dislike someone, it's the perfect time to spread an unpleasant rumor about them! At least, that was sometimes the case in the Russian Empire.

To this day, we hear amazing stories that were born from gossip. Just imagine how much was discussed back then, and how easily people could believe in it all!

Illustrator Katya Gushchina and historian Andrey Aksyonov have an advantage over our ancestors - the distance from that verbal turmoil, which allows them to calmly reconstruct history, confirm or disprove rumors about Russian emperors from Peter I to Nicholas II.

But despite this, the authors remind us that all rulers, scholars, writers, generals, and the people of past centuries are, in fact, still a very vivid present.