About the book: 2015 / Library of the project "History of the Russian State" - these are the best monuments of world literature recommended by Boris Akunin, which reflect the biography of our country, from its very origins. The time recreated in the historical stories of Vera Panova is the Rus of Kievan, Vladimir-Suzdal and Moscow. The Kiev princess Olga and the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Theodosius were canonized by the church and canonized. The story “Who Dies,” telling about the last days of the Moscow autocrat Vasily III, the father of Ivan the Terrible, is rightfully ranked among the best examples of historical prose. Behind the iconographic faces darkened by time, Panova saw living human faces with their deep experiences and spiritual impulses. According to K. Simonov, Vera Panova’s stories are “real history, in all the cruelest interweaving of its contradictions, clashes, destinies, views, passions.”».