Book, literary accompaniment of the first volume of "History of the Russian state. From the origins to the Mongol invasion" by the famous writer and researcher Boris Akunin. Consists of three stories - "The Fiery Finger", "Devil's Spit" and "Prince Cranberry" "Fire Finger". Mid-ninth century. In Kyiv, where Prince Kiy rules, the Greek Damianos Lekos arrives. The goal is maximum exploration of the Slavic territories around Kyiv and further north. The agent of Byzantine big politics is armed with the latest technology of his time. At his service are a crossbow, optical spyglasses and even the most real biorobots - tripocephalic slaves. Lekos embarks on a dangerous expedition to the north. To find out if the danger posed by the northern tribe of the Rus and their leader Rorik is so great... "The Spit of the Devil" is a story about the confrontation between Yaroslav the Wise's Kyiv and Konstantin Monomakh's Constantinople. All this is happening against the backdrop of ongoing palace intrigues and conspiracies in Kyiv itself, with mysterious murders, deceit, baby swapping, and so on. Kievan Rus is indeed part of Europe. At least in that sense... "Prince Cranberry". Early 13th century. Russia is fragmented and humiliated. Prince Klyukva is the youngest son of a recently deceased prince of a principality bordering the Steppe. The elder brother, the legitimate heir to the throne, fled with the entire treasury to the West even before the death of his father. Prince Klyukva has to literally bit by bit, bit by bit, strengthen and collect a new treasury, and create a new principality. Will he succeed?
