Viewed in historical retrospect, Russian-Turkish coexistence can hardly be described as an idyll. The two countries fought each other fiercely and for a long time. They fought more than traded. Nevertheless, even in the most stagnant and cloudy periods in relations between the two peoples the process of mutual enrichment of their cultures was not interrupted. The eternal rivals have always remained eternal neighbours. In Russian literature there are more than a few stories of how the two nations stunned the world with the thunder of bloody fighting. In the life of the people, too, stories about warlike Turks have been passed down from generation to generation. On returning from the Russian-Turkish war, a soldier living in a remote place would tell his neighbours about the vehement attacks of Turks, enhancing in this way his own valour in the eyes of his relatives and countrymen.