PRIVY COUNCILOR OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE. THE ADVENTURES OF FYODOR SMIRNOY (ILLUSTRATED)

Summer, 1560. Moscow. The Kremlin.
Everything was mixed up in the Grand Palace. Our Sovereign Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible is in grave confusion. Tsarina Anastasia Romanovna is dying from an unknown disease. Princes are sharpening their knives! There is treason in the boyars! There is witchcraft in the scribes! You say, this is the delirium of a sick tsar? And here is an attempt- right in the monastery among the shrines! — how is that?! Who will save the Sovereign? The Boyar Duma? The Streletsky Regiment? The old Metropolitan? Maybe loyal Russian people will protect their beloved monarch? But he is under suspicion! It remains only to believe in God! The boy of the monastery sounds smart! And somehow all issues are solved. The ghosts are retreating. The enemy’s cunning is disappearing. Do you see, Sire, who has the power? Ordinary people: loyal dog-keepers, small courtiers, a blond boy...Just ordinary people have the power! Come here, boy!.. So the amazing adventurous long-term service of the deacon of the Grand Palace Fyodor Smirnoy began...