Casanova, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Saint-Germain — names shrouded in legend.
Without social media or sales funnels, armed only with a seat in a mail coach and modest means, they fearlessly set off into the unknown.

Seducers, alchemists, healers, prophets, spies, diplomats — they found powerful patrons and captivated monarchs.
It was a time of great rupture. The Enlightenment dreamed of the triumph of reason and a just future. Yet the more rational the theories became, the more irrational life itself proved to be.

Ideals turned into terror; the search for truth led to a flourishing of mysticism.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…” — thus Charles Dickens described the end of the 18th century.
And his words sound unsettlingly modern.

As on the eve of the French Revolution, we are living today in a time of great uncertainty. People are once again ready to be deceived — and there are many willing to deceive them. Modern “info-gypsies” need no examples of Casanova or Saint-Germain. They do not need to master languages, display aristocratic manners, or astonish with extraordinary abilities.

Yet for those who are rebuilding their lives in a foreign country, the biographies of the great adventurers can offer sharp and unexpected answers to essential questions.
How do you build a reputation where no one knows you?
How do you become one of your own among strangers?
How do you turn rootlessness into freedom, and necessity into opportunity?

For someone who remains true to themselves and persistently moves toward their goal, nothing is impossible.

Presenter: Elena Panisheva — cultural historian, literary scholar, and curator of exhibition projects at the State Literary Museum in Moscow.