"Essays on the History of Byzantium and the South Slavs" were written by order of the State Educational and Pedagogical Publishing House of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR in 1958 as a textbook on the medieval history of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. Until the departure of A.P. Kazhdan to the USA in 1978, the book was listed in the list of educational literature at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. "Essays" do not contain a systematic and comprehensive presentation of historical material. The authors sought to provide lively and fascinating information: it is for this purpose that the book provides characteristics of the geographical environment, a description of the life of villages and cities, and a detailed account of such significant events as the popular uprising in Thessaloniki and the fall of Constantinople.

ContentsEastern Roman empire and “barbarians” in the IV-V centuries. Attempts to restore the Roman Empire and class struggle in the VI century. The fall of the slave system in the Eastern Roman Empire and the settlement of the southern Slavs on the Balkan Peninsula (late VI-VII centuries) Physiographic and administrative map Byzantium in the 8th century. Byzantine community in the era of the genesis of feudalism (VIII-X centuries). Development of feudal relations in Byzantium in the 10th-12th centuries. Byzantine city in the 9th-12th centuries. State apparatus and church of the Byzantine Empire in the 9th-12th centuries. Byzantine culture IX-XII centuriesBulgaria, Byzantium and the Great Moravian Principality in the IX century. The Bulgarian state in the second half of the IX-first half of the X century. The fall of the Bulgarian state. South Slavic people under the rule of Byzantium. The First Crusade, the Slavs and Byzantium. Byzantium and the Fourth Crusade. The Latin Empire and the hegemony of Bulgaria in the Balkans. Byzantine village. and the city in the XIII-XV centuries. Revolt of the Zealots. Hegemony of Serbia in the Balkans in the XIV century. Dubrovnik in the XIII-XIV centuries. The struggle of the South Slavs against the Turkish conquest. The Fall of Constantinople