The book by L.A. Gindin and V.L. Tsymbursky “Homer and the history of the Eastern Mediterranean” is the first work in Russian science dedicated to the centuries-old history of ancient Troy and the adjacent territories of the Balkans and Asia Minor, as well as the reconstruction of the real reality behind Greek legends about the great Trojan War. When analyzing the text of Homer's poems, in addition to the Greek and Latin literary tradition, various ancient written sources were used: Hittite, Greco-Mycenaean archival documents and Egyptian inscriptions; Archeological data are widely used. Table of contents: Chapter 1. History belongs to the poet... 3EGEID AND THE TROJAN WARChapter 2. Hittite evidence of the Achaeans in AnatoliaXV-XIII centuries. BC...... 42Chapter 3. Wilusa-Ilion and Truisa-Troy 95Chapter 4. Achaeans, “peoples of the sea” and Heracleidae (The collapse of Mycenaean Greece and the death of Troy) 132WHO LIVED IN TROYA?Chapter 5. Thrace and Troas ....... 185Chapter 6. Luwians in Troy........ 226Chapter 7. Hittites in Trojan legends 271List of abbreviations.. 303Literature... 306Summary........ 322