The Rurik dynasty ruled Russia for seven and a half centuries. The fate of our country is tightly intertwined with the fate of this family. The individuals who belonged to it had a noticeable influence on politics, culture, faith, and life of the Russian Middle Ages. Textbooks, films, and historical novels are filled with their names. Their picturesque images hang in art galleries and adorn the walls of temples. Historians still argue about their deeds. The book offered to the attention of readers includes more than three dozen biographies. Among its heroes are outstanding statesmen and generals, revered Orthodox saints and - next to them - people who, at first glance, did not do anything remarkable in their lives. Some of them ruled small principalities, others bore the title of great princes, and then kings of Moscow and all Rus', and ruled vast territories. But it is through the biographies of these people, combined in one book, that one can trace how the original Principality of Kiev over the course of several centuries turned into another state - the same one in which we live to this day - Russia.