There are people whose biography focuses on the era. Among such people, undoubtedly, is Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky (1528 - 1583) - a contemporary and denouncer of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, a boyar and governor, the first Russian political emigrant and even a dissident, as he is sometimes called. The famous correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and Kurbsky has long become the property of not only historians, but also the widest layers of society. However, the history of the fugitive prince was strongly mythologized during his lifetime, and after his death it became overgrown with such legends that the personality of the real boyar and governor completely disappeared into the wild imagination of his descendants. So who really was Prince Andrei Kurbsky? And what is his true role in the dramatic events of the reign of Ivan the Terrible? Answering these questions, the author of the book, the famous St. Petersburg historian A. I. Filyushkin, recreates a wide panorama of the events of the “great and terrible” Russian 16th century.