Prince Serebryany

In the summer of 1565, the hero of the novel, young boiar Prince Nikita Romanovich Serebryany, returns to Moscow from Lithuania, where for 5 years he had been making efforts to sign a peace treaty, but failed due to the evasiveness of Lithuanian diplomats and his own directness. Here he finds himself amid the atmosphere of a spree of tyranny, the oprichnina, the blocks and gallows—during the brutal times of Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible’s) reign.