The Power of the Sword

The mid-17th century. Tensions on the northern Russian borders: the new Swedish king, Charles Gustav, is pressing forward rapidly along the entire coastline, threatening to turn the Baltic Sea into an internal “Swedish lake” any moment now. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich understands that another war with the Swedes is unavoidable…

Nikita Petrovich Buturlin, a minor Russian nobleman, is deeply worried about his own life. His estate has long fallen into decline; all that’s left are loyal servants and intrigues with a powerful neighbor beyond the land and the forest-covered lake. To keep from disappearing completely, Buturlin is involved in the pilotage business—he guides trade ships along the Neva-river route to the Swedish city of Niena. There, in Niena, lives a girl whom Nikita likes… But will they be meant to be together? Especially since war is about to begin, and Buturlin has already received from the very warlord—Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Potemkin—a very important and dangerous assignment related to the fortress of Nienşanc…