About the book: 2011 / N. P. Mashkin is a Russian writer of the late 19th century, one of a whole cohort of historical novelists whose works gained fame in Russian fiction. The name of this writer, now undeservedly forgotten, stands on a par with his brilliant contemporaries, such as V. P. Avenarius, M. N. Volkonsky, A. I. Krasnitsky, D. L. Mordovtsev, N. E. Heinze and others .The action of the novel “The Tsar Bell, or Antichrist of the 17th Century,” first published in 1892, takes place in the middle of the 17th century. during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, during the schism of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the center of the events of the novel, along with the personalities of Patriarch Nikon, the frantic schismatic Avvakum and Stepan Razin, the author with great skill presented the images of ordinary Russian people who built Moscow and increased the glory of the Russian land.