The novel “Word and Deed” consists of two books: “The Queen of the Terrible Faces” and “My Dear Confidants”. The events described in the novel belong to the era of palace coups, the period of the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The novel conveys all the drama of the struggle of Russian people against the powerful court favorite Biron— as well as against the dominance of foreigners.
The novel “Word and Deed” is a cruel novel. As cruel as the era it depicts was. But the main motive sounds even stronger: the struggle of the Russian person against foreign oppressors. The writer managed to show that, no matter how great the hardships of terror were, no matter how horribly cruel the repressions and tightening of control were, they could not break the people’s unbreakable aspiration for freedom and national independence.