The work offered to the reader by the remarkable publicist Vladimir Alekseevich Chivilikhin is dedicated to the origin and formation of Russian statehood and culture, feats of arms and the peaceful creation of the Russian people in the era of the early Middle Ages. This book is the final part of his many years of work on the essay novel “Memory”, however, according to the author himself, it has independent significance and can be considered as a finished work, a kind of result of a long journey to Ancient Rus' and at the same time reflections on the attitude of contemporaries to the spiritual and historical heritage, about the problems of studying history. With the beginning of perestroika, the novel had a great influence on the development of social thought, the patriotic movement in Russia and the creation of the Memory society. V.A. Chivilikhin was one of the main and consistent opponents of L.N. Gumilyov and by all available means sought to debunk the theory of ethnogenesis and passionarity of his colleague.