Nikita Isanov — historian, author of the popular podcast «In the Time of Tsar Gorokh», where he tells amazing, unknown, and sometimes frightening stories about the past of our country. How for many centuries people loved, created, made mistakes, and what this led to. Geniuses and villains, wives and mistresses, tsars and courtiers, politicians and poets, soldiers and explorers — each of them changed the era in which they lived. The 19th century in Russia is rich with events: the assassination of Paul I, the Moscow fire of 1812, the gold rush in Siberia, the last duel of Alexander Pushkin, the cholera epidemic, the sale of Alaska, the mysterious death of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the emergence of color photography, and many other significant episodes not only in national but also in world history. On the pages of this book, the reader will find 20 captivating stories about terrible tragedies, great discoveries, feats, intrigues, and conspiracies, the echoes of which still resonate today.