The History of the Russian State by Boris Akunin is Grigori Chkhartishvili’s game of conspiracy?

The author deals with the question of Chkhartishvili’s pen names and their role in his work. The characteristics of literary masks, history of their appearance are presented. A general analysis of Chkhartishvili's literary activity and the evolution of his style is also given. The features of the use of various images “tried on” by the writer when creating the main works are analyzed, the necessity of referring to pseudonyms is justified. The main part of the work is devoted to the problem of authorship in the project History of the Russian State, as well as an explanation of the motives that guide G. Chkhartishvili, publishing a historical work under the pseudonym of Boris Akunin. An assessment of Akunin's writing style, his ability to transform familiar genres to the needs of the audience, time, author's tasks, etc., is presented, and the project's fiction texts are overall analyzed. Conclusions are made about the literary image of Chkhartishvili-Akunin as an alternative hero involved in the creation of a historical project. This fact suggests that the writer once again demonstrates his ability to reincarnate, change plot and style and, of course, transform the manner of writing, when working on a particular work of fiction.