What is Smoot? This is the name of one of the most difficult and tragic periods of Russian history. First appearing in the work of the 17th century clerk G. Kotoshikhin, it turned out to be so capacious and accurate that it was perceived by many historians of the 19th-20th centuries. Indeed, what else to call the endless change of kings, bloody civil strife, sharp political and social battles, foreign intervention, the struggle of patriotic forces against it?