I. I. Lazhechnikov (1792–1869) is one of our best historical novelists. A. S. Pushkin said this about the novel “The Ice House”: “... poetry will always remain poetry, and many pages of your novel will live on, so long as the Russian language is not forgotten.” Lazhechnikov’s charm lies in his personal experience of history and in the astonishing accuracy with which the writer recreates the atmosphere of the eras being studied. The vividness of the narrative brought him the fame of the “native Walter Scott” among contemporaries.