The book of the outstanding Russian ethnographer Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov is devoted to one of the most complex and intricate problems of Russian history - the question of the relationship between Ancient Russia and the nomads of the Great Steppe throughout the Middle Ages. Fascinating and emotional, written in impeccable language, this work was a brilliant attempt to reconstruct a detailed and holistic picture of the history of Eurasia in the XI-XIV centuries.