About the book: 2005 / The struggle for Constantinople and for control of the Black Sea straits has been going on for over 1000 years. The Byzantine emperors and then the Turkish rulers, who prevented Russia’s free access to the Mediterranean Sea, made Constantinople a “pain point” for our country. Unfortunately, both Soviet and current liberal Russian historians sometimes try to reduce this problem to the ambitions of individual princes, kings and general secretaries. Military historian A.B. Shirokorad for the first time tried to present the events of this difficult thousand-year war as a whole and without ideological cuts. The book is published in the author's edition.