Valery Shamshurin’s novel tells of the events of the Time of Troubles. It was a fateful period in Russia’s history. Only thanks to incredible nationwide efforts, thanks to the feat of the Nizhny Novgorod elder Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who gathered a people’s militia and crushed the enemies entrenched in Moscow, was Russia saved from plunging into the abyss.