This work, written by V.I. Tvircun, is dedicated to the fate of one of the most excellent governmental and political figures of Moldova, a scientist and encyclopedist of the first quarter of the 18th century Dimitrie Cantemir.

Dimitrie Cantemir is a phenomenon of his period. In the era of military and political opposition between the Christian West and Muslim East, he had taken upon himself the role of a liaison between the two great cultures, reciprocally enriching each of them with new knowledge, and at the same time awakening the interest and the need for observing and understanding each other. For the first time the Ottoman Empire was presented to the European reader not as an enemy and competitor, but as a country with a rich historical traditions, culture, spiritual and political life. Talking about the European readers and scientists we should not forget about the intellectual Turkish layer itself. Because of a rich palitra of events, facts, dates and people presented in the "Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire", there awakens a lively interest among the Turkish population.

Dimitrie Cantemir's merits before culture, world historical and philosophical thought do not throw a shadow on the faithful son of Orthodox religion and a truthful patriot of Moldova.

It seems that through history of the 650 years of our country, his personality can be compared to the scale and importance only of Stefan the Great and Holy. Being full of bravery in time of peril, resistant to the clashes of life.. .by doing great deeds with small means" through the military genius and political talent, Stefan-Voda had introduced the Moldavian State into the line of the important European states from the second half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, obliging to take into consideration other countries interests, which were ahead in dimension, and in number of citizens. It was mainly during the time of Stephen the Great and Holy, when Europe found out about Moldova and had directly recognized her as an efficient and plenipotential actor on the international political and military arena.

In this book documents achieved from the archives of Moscow and San-Petersburg are for the first time brought to the scientific circuit. At the same time it contains documents published in the 18th and 19th centuries that became a bibliographical rarity.