The first Russian saints, brothers Boris and Gleb, chose voluntary death for themselves, abandoning the struggle for power over Kiev and the entire Russian land. This happened almost a thousand years ago, in the summer and early autumn of 1015, after the death of their father Vladimir, the Baptist of Rus'. But in subsequent Russian history, paradoxically, the holy brothers began to be perceived as heavenly intercessors and warriors for the Russian land; Russian people felt their invisible presence on the battlefields with conquerors and foreigners constantly for many centuries - both on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242, and on the eve and during the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, and during the invasion of Rus' by the troops of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey in the 16th century... In our century, which cultivates pragmatism and hedonism and recognizes only brutal heroes, the brothers Boris and Gleb, who showed the world the feat of non-resistance to evil, may seem like those who, in the wretched language of the streets, are called “losers”, “losers”. But what they did has nothing to do with pliable and timid submission to circumstances, nor with cowardice and paralysis of the will. The author of the book, Doctor of Philology, Professor Andrei Mikhailovich Ranchin reminds us of this. The book presented to the attention of readers is essentially the first attempt at a biographical, rather than hagiographic, narrative about Boris and Gleb. The author carefully analyzes all versions of sources, all evidence related to the biography of the brothers, trying to give his answer to the question: why did Boris and Gleb, and not some other victims of intra-dynastic conflicts so frequent in Ancient Rus', happen to become the first Russian saints?