The struggle for Smolensk (XVI - XVII centuries). Maltsev V.P.

The struggle for Smolensk, which was rightly called the "key to Moscow", its accession to Moscow at the beginning of the 16th century. And the loss at the beginning of the XVII century. associated with two important stages of Russian history - the collection of Russian lands around Moscow and the crisis of the formed Russian statehood. It is the events related to Smolensk that are discussed in detail in the proposed book. The labor published in 1940 has not been reprinted since then, and the reader who is unusual to the quotation of the texts of the classics of Marxism and the class approach unusual at that time, this may seem strange, but all this more than compensate for the coverage and appeal to many rare historical sources. Before us unfolds an epic historical canvas, saturated with many interesting details. Everyday being, betrayal and a military feat are adjacent to the pages of the book.