The
novel starts from the description of the Slavs’ life. At first we get
impression of a princely family, their way of life and about life of
Slavic tribes.
Most of events happened in Kievan Russia and Byzantine Empire.
In the Xth century princess Olga ruled over Russia because her son
Svyatoslav was very young. That period she visited Byzantine and adopted
Christianity. .
The
author told us about love between Svyatoslav and a young girl Malusha.
They couldn’t get married but Malusha gave birth to Svyatoslav’s son
Vladimir and she had to live alone in a village quite far from Kiev. Her
son was brought up by her brother Tur. Malusha’s father took part in
Svyatoslav’s campaigns against Byzantine Empire. The
book contains a description of the relationship between Russian
princess and Byzantine Emperors. The author didn’t forget about an
intrigue about the Byzantine throne. He wrote about the confrontation
between Kievan Russia and Byzantine Empire over the control of Bulgaria.
The
author uses chronicle and folklore. He describes Kiev State in the Xth
century and Svyatoslav’s campaign. The book isn’t a scientific work. The
book gives an idea of our history but there are no any references on
historical materials so there are a lot of different descriptions of
events and different opinions of them. Some information in the book is
unreliable, some of it is created by the author. This book is easy to read. It gives some information of our history and some food for thought.
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