The book is devoted to the study of one of the little-known events of the Smolensk War of 1512–1522 - the defense of Opochka against the army of Prince K. I. Ostrozhsky. The small fortress, contemptuously called a “pork trough” by the enemy, stopped the advance of the entire Polish-Lithuanian army. Due to large losses under the walls of the town, King Sigismund the Old called Opochka a “demon village.” The book is addressed to teachers, students of higher and secondary educational institutions and everyone interested in military history and the history of the Fatherland. On the cover: Pskov pischalnik of the 1st third of the 16th century. Drawing by Yu. Yurov.