The history of the Baltics - Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia - despite the fact that these countries for a long time were part of first the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, is little known to the Russian reader. It is safe to say that for most of our contemporaries this is a blank spot on the map of knowledge. This makes this book by professional historians Mikhail Bredis and Elena Tyanina all the more valuable. In it, the authors, in an accessible language (which, however, does not detract from its scientific value) tell the reader about the complex and confusing beginning of the 13th century, full of political intrigue and bloody battles, when the interests of the Order of the Sword, which began a crusade against the Russians and the Baltic states, collided on the Baltic coast. Novgorod, the Principality of Polotsk, the indigenous Baltic peoples, who, in the fight against foreign invaders, laid the foundations of their future statehood. The book will be of interest to university and school teachers, students and anyone interested in history.