Almost unknown to modern readers, Vladimir Aristov’s novels “Skomorokhs” and “Key City” describe events that took place in the 15th – early 16th centuries. The Kulikovo Field is already a thing of the past, but the Russian lands are still being bled dry by Tatar raids and princely strife. The formation of the Russian state is painfully difficult and takes a long time. Time of Troubles. Betrayal of the boyars, love for the Motherland and heroism of the common people. For twenty months the Polish-Lithuanian army could not take the Smolensk fortress built by the architect Fyodor Konev...Artist A. Krylov