Russian lands in the Middle Ages. Vernadsky G.

The book of George Vernadsky is devoted to the formation of a centralized state in postmongol Rus', when the efforts of Ivan III and Vasily III are mostly peacefully, but if necessary with fire and sword - most of the country was united around Moscow. But the West Russian lands - Ukraine and Belarus - were part of the United Polish -Lithuanian state, which led to their political and cultural giving from East Rus'. Under the influence of the struggle for their return, Russia's foreign policy was formed for centuries - without knowledge of this, it is impossible to understand the subsequent course of Russian history to the present. The author gives a wide picture of the life of the Moscow kingdom and describes in detail the position of Western Rus' in the 16th century, the confrontation of Moscow and Poland, the rise of the Ukrainian Cossacks and persecution of the Orthodox after the Brest Church Union of 1596.

George Vernadsky (1888-1973) - Russian-American historian, professor of Yale University, son of the great thinker Vladimir Vernadsky and a student of Vasily Klyuchevsky.