“Let Rus' know my truth and my sin... Let it condemn - and let it forgive! From now on, having gathered all my strength, until my last breath I will firmly and menacingly hold the kingdom in my hand!” So swore the Sovereign of Moscow Ivan Vasilyevich in the “year 7071 from the Creation of the world.” Valery Poluiko’s novel depicts with great accuracy and power the important events of Russian history at the turn of 1562/63 - participation in the Livonian War, the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea and the transformation The Grand Duchy of Moscow into a powerful European power.