22 Deaths, 63 Versions

The book contains 22 essays about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of famous Russian statesmen and figures from literature and art: Ivan the Terrible, Peter the First, Alexander Radishchev, Peter Tchaikovsky, Alexander Blok, Savva Morozov, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Lenin, Pyotr Wrangel, Sergei Kirov, Joseph Stalin, and others. The events covered span the period from 1584 to 1953. This is not an academic work; it contains no scholarly apparatus. However, the author tried, as far as possible, to take into account all the most important sources and consider various, often opposing, viewpoints.