The book is devoted to the inclusion in the Russian state of the principalities of the upper Oka, Bryansk, Smolensk and other lands located at the end of the XV-beginning of the XVI century. on the border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The author's focus is on the position of various segments of the population of border lands (princes, boyars, townspeople, Orthodox clergy), who in their own way solved the difficult task of choosing between two opposing powers - the great principalities of Moscow and Lithuania. The work is based on a wide range of sources, some of which are first introduced by the author into scientific circulation.