"In the 1820's, "philhellene", lover of Greeks and everything Greek, is what they began to call those who sympathized with the struggle of the Greek rebels against the Ottoman Empire, or those who took a direct part in it. Lord Byron, who went to Greece and died there, considers himself the protagonist of the novel, retired staff captain Grigory Mossepanov. This character is fictional. Unlike my factual books, here I gave free rein to my imagination. The action begins in the factories of Nizhny Tagil, Russia, continues in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Tsarskoye Selo, Taganrog, from Russia teh action moves to Nafplion and Alexandria, and ends in Athens, on the Acropolis. Among the central characters of the novel are Alexander I, the mystic baroness Julia Kridner, the Egyptian commander Ibrahim Pasha, and other real figures. "Philhellene" is more of a variation on historical themes than a traditional historical novel." --