Byzantium and crusaders. The fall of Byzantium. Vasiliev A.

The book included two works of the outstanding Russian and subsequently American Byzantinist Academician Alexander Vasiliev - “Byzantium and the Crusaders” (1923) and “The fall of Byzantium” (1925). A sharp and impartial look, a clear analysis of the causes of the unfolding events, the extensive attracting of sources - these are the distinctive features of his books. We see how the Byzantine empire is gradually corroding internal contradictions, how the Latins, led by Venice and from the east, the Turks, how, finally, the crusaders, forgetting about the coffin of the Lord, turn the fourth crusade on Constantinople - a brilliant city who did not know Equal in Europe, master it and affirm their state on a looted ash. Fifty years later, the Byzantine Empire was revived, but its forces were undermined. By 1453, all of it was terrible to the size of its capital, and then the final act of the Great Historical Drama came - the assault on the city by Sultan Mehmed II and the death of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI in hand -to -hand combat... Thus ended the millennial history of Byzantium.