In the book "Fire and Sword. Russia between the "Polish eagle" and the "Swedish lion." 1512-1634 Alexander Putyatin describes the events of a fateful period for our country, which for centuries determined its place in world history. The Smolensk campaigns of Vasily III, the Livonian war of Ivan the Terrible, the struggle of the Russian people against the Polish-Lithuanian invaders during the Time of Troubles, the unsuccessful campaign of Mikhail Shein - appear before readers in the form of a single armed conflict, which lasted more than a century of a great war in which Russia defended its independence and forever ended the dreams of the Polish-Lithuanian union of hegemony in Eastern Europe.