Marfa the Mayoress

The fifteenth century. The novel “Marfa the Mayor’s Wife” is devoted to one of the most important events in Russian history—the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow Grand Duchy. Marfa Boretskaya, who led the boyar group hostile to Ivan the Third’s unifying policy, is a tragic figure. Her personal courage brought her fame, but she defended a cause that history had already doomed.