A. S. Orlov. Historical and Poetic Tales of Azov, 1906

This 1906 book brings together the texts of tales about two dramatic episodes in the history of Azov: the capture of the Turkish fortress by the Don Cossacks in 1637 and the Azov Siege of 1641. The tales themselves were written soon after the events: the Tale of the Azov Siege by the Don Cossacks is dated to around 1641.

In the spring of 1637 the Cossacks besieged Azov, and on 18 June, after blowing up a mine, they stormed the fortress. In 1641 a Turkish army laid siege to the town; the siege lasted from June to the end of September and was lifted, and in the summer of 1642 the Cossacks themselves abandoned Azov, destroying its fortifications. The edition was prepared by the literary scholar Alexander Sergeyevich Orlov (1871–1947), a specialist in Old Russian literature and later an academician. In 1906 he defended his master's thesis, and in 1907 his studies of the Azov tales were awarded the Uvarov Prize.

The book was printed in Moscow at the Synodal Press; the binding is made of pasteboard, cloth and leather with tooling. The Azov Museum names A. Orlov's "Historical Tale of Azov" among the literature on the history of the Don that is especially valuable to it.