The first book of the trilogy, “Grey History,” examines the imperial theme in European history from the 4th century AD. e. to this day, including the concepts of “Western Roman Empire”, “Eastern Roman Empire”, “Byzantine Empire”, “Empire of Charlemagne”, “Holy Roman Empire”. The investigation is carried out using a simple operation: from the known facts of European history to the last two thousand years, traditional interpretations are separated, and then a new interpretation of these facts is made without the influence of habitual assessments and conclusions. As a result, the author finds reasons to abandon the generally accepted view of which countries represent civilization and which represent barbarian culture, and replace it with another understanding that corresponds to the facts recognized by experts.