Biron, the son of minor Baltic nobles, made a brilliant career by becoming—if only for a few days—a regent of the Russian Empire. His life was full of intrigues and plots, struggles for power, and love. He was sentenced to death, yet lived to be 82 years old. Everyone feared Biron. By his name they frightened disobedient children, and even a whole period of Russian history was named after him—“Biron’s rule.”
In the novella by Konstantin Masalsky, the short but very significant for Russian history period of Biron’s reign is vividly described.