The struggle for Constantinople and for control of the Black Sea Straits has been going on for over 1000 years. Byzantine emperors and then Turkish rulers, who prevented Russia's free access to the Mediterranean Sea, made Constantinople the "pain point" of our country. Unfortunately, both Soviet and current liberal Russian historians sometimes try to reduce this problem to the ambitions of individual princes, tsars and general secretaries. Military historian A.B. Shirokorad first tried to present the events of this difficult thousand-year war as a whole and without ideological bills. The book is published in the author's edition.