The third book of the project "History of Kyiv" is called "Imperial Kyiv" and is dedicated to the history of this city and all of Ukraine from the middle of the 17th century (Pereyaslavskaya Rada) to the reign of Alexander II, when Russia actually formed as an empire. In the figurative expression of Viktor Kirkevich, he wanted to tell the modern reader "how Kyiv became Moscow," how it happened that Ukraine lost its acquired statehood with blood, and how the Hetmanate gradually turned into the outskirts of the Russian Empire.