About the book: 2008 / Memoirs of the Marquis de Custine, published after a trip to Russia... One of the most scandalous books of the 19th century, revealing to the reader many secular, court, political and even the alcove secrets of the “boring and well-behaved” era of Nicholas I. A book that has been causing heated debate among experts in Russian history for more than a century and a half. - and which even now has not lost its relevance.