Soon it will be 130 years since the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been written in various languages about this war, which liberated the Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke. Nevertheless, it is difficult for the modern reader to understand the events, because many works are bibliographic rarities, and some details are not entirely understood by historians and eyewitnesses. Military historian N.V. Skritsky made an attempt to talk about the little-known and misunderstood events of this war, which to some extent was the forerunner of the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars. According to the author, if not Turkey, then Russia was forced to use the gambit in order to be able to implement at least part of its plans. The book contains brief biographies of those people who influenced the development of hostilities and diplomatic negotiations before, during and after the end of the war.