Prince Silver

1565. A young voivode, Prince Nikita Silver, returns from the Livonian War and encounters the lawlessness of the Oprichnina, which has taken hold in the state during his absence. Unable to believe that such cruelty occurs with the king's connivance,... he sets off for Alexandrov Sloboda to stand before Ivan the Terrible himself... But first, the prince learns yet another bitter news: his beloved has become the wife of another. 
The novel, which underwent three reissues during the author's lifetime and was translated into five languages, is a poignant statement about the horrors of tyranny, about fidelity to ideals, to one's word — and to one's own heart.