About the book: 2020 / British medieval historian, Byzantinist Stephen Runciman in his work tells about what brought Byzantium to the brink of destruction, and the Turks - to triumph, why Europe chose to ignore the difficult situation in which the Byzantines found themselves, and the help they received was so insignificant. The book describes in detail the course of military operations, the reasons that led to the fall of Constantinople after a relatively short siege, and the consequences of all this, which became a terrible shock for the Christian peoples. The victory allowed the Turks not only to found a new capital, but also to secure a strong position in Europe for further conquests. For the Greeks, the defeat meant the death of Byzantine civilization and the departure of Greek culture underground, and, in addition, it led to the exodus of Byzantine intellectuals to the West, which played a significant role in the European Renaissance.