The book of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. L. Yanin is devoted to the history of the discovery and study of Novgorod letters on birch bark. The vast majority of these ancient documents are letters from Novgorod citizens and villagers. Correspondence allowed scientists to penetrate the previously inaccessible world of everyday worries of Novgorodians, expanding the range of problems studied by historians and changing the general idea of ​ ​ the development of medieval Novgorod. The book about birch bark letters is a story about the most important processes of the history of Novgorod, which made this city one of the most important centers of the economy, politics and culture of medieval Europe.