This publication is a chronological continuation of the study of the Lithuanian-Polish period in Russian history, begun by A. Rechkalov in the first book “Rus - the path to Ukraine”. The reign of the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland Vladislaus III, Casimir IV, John Albrech and Alexander is considered by the author against the backdrop of the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the growing Turkish-Crimean threat and the growing power of Muscovy. The final defeat of the Teutonic Order and Tatar raids on the lands of southwestern Rus', the introduction of Magdeburg law in Kyiv and the emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks, the tragedy at Vedrosha and the fate of new generations of the Ostrog princes are shown in close connection with the events of the political and religious life of Europe in the second half of the 15th - early 16th century Art. Much attention in the book is paid to such a controversial phenomenon in the history of Christianity as the “Great Schism” and the repeated attempts to overcome it, the influence of the decisions of the Council of Florence in 1438–1439. on the situation of the Orthodox population in Poland and Lithuania and the division of Orthodoxy in Rus' into the Kyiv and Moscow metropolitanates. The book is addressed to everyone who is not indifferent to the historical past of the Ukrainian people.