Intriguers: Tsarist spy Azef chats with white terrorist SavinkovBefore the invention of television, people had to find alternative ways of amusing themselves. That's what goggle-eyed children are always told by their parents as a hint at getting them to do something more active.
What they are not told is that one of the more popular amusements of former times was cross-dressing. Other common hobbies were adultery, dueling and assassinating members of the royal family.
Intriguers: Tsarist spy Azef chats with white terrorist Savinkov
This sordid picture of life in the 16th through 19th centuries has been conjured up by St Petersburg's historical museum of wax figures in a manner entertaining enough to rival Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors in London.
The "Intrigue and Power" exhibition has only five rooms but they are packed with tales of some of the most inglorious moments of history.
The stories are related with relish by tour guides in Russian, English or German as requested. The exhibition cannot be viewed without a guide as there are no explanatory signs and a number of the figures are obscure characters notable only for their eccentricities.
"Intrigues in Russia as a rule end in tragedy, but European intrigues are rather different," said our guide, leading us to the room devoted to French 18th-century aristocrats.
One of France's best spies was a man who spent 34 of his more than 80 years dressed in women's clothing and allegedly could pass as a woman even in his birthday suit.
On different occasions he visited the Russian imperial court in the guise of a man and the guise of a woman. After his death his gender had to be determined by a committee of medical examiners.
Not to be outdone, Russia's own heroine-transvestite is on display, a woman whose claim to fame was that she was indistinguishable from a man.
Another Russian who led a double life was a senior police officer of the late 19th century who had a part-time job as a terrorist.
He can be seen alongside his contemporary Father Gapon, who led the doomed workers' protest march on Bloody Sunday, 1905. The demonstrators who had come to petition the Tsar for help were mown down by Cossacks on horseback and Father Gapon was executed.
"It was not only people who were killed in the Stalin era," the guide said. "Father Gapon's grave was destroyed during the 1930s."
Death and destruction is omnipresent in Russian history. A certain Count Tolstoy was addicted to dueling and killed 11 people before repenting and turning to religion. Dantes, the Frenchman who mortally wounded the poet Pushkin in a duel over the honor of Pushkin's wife is also present, gun in hand.
Exemplary standards of behavior are entirely absent in the tableau of Russian Tsars.
Assassin: Ivan the Terrible contemplates his next victim
Ivan the Terrible in a malicious-looking green silk robe sits twisting his whiskers and contemplating his next victim.
Catherine the Great's lover stands meekly behind her as she savors her regal position, attained by arranging the murder of her husband, Peter III.
This event, not surprisingly, had an adverse effect on their son, the future Tsar Pavel I, who was afraid of his mother and barricaded himself into a palace surrounded by a moat.
Victim: Pavel I. Paranoid - and rightly so as it happened
He was obsessed with all things military and can be seen here clad in a flamboyant uniform complete with sword. Despite his justifiable paranoia Pavel failed to defend himself from assassination.
All the wax figures and their costumes have been meticulously produced according to historical portraits and documents. The result is a collection of people who come alive as their exploits are described.
Their expressions, poses and settings are imaginatively varied. The 45-minute tour is just the right length to prevent a lapse in concentration even by smaller visitors.
The co-operative museum claims to be the first private museum in Russia, dependent on entry fees and revenue from tours.
It started in 1989 with an exhibition entitled "House of the Romanovs" at Petrodvorets. Those figures are currently visiting the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
What: The Exhibition of Intrigue and Power (adventurers, impostors and emperors)
Where: Dvoryets Belosyelskikh-Belozyerskikh (Nevsky Prospect, next to Anichkov Most)
Nearest metro: Gostinni Dvor/Nevsky Prospect or Mayakovskaya
When: Every day from 11 am to 6.30 pm
Cost: 20,000 roubles ($5) for foreigners, 7,000 roubles ($2) for Russians