The book began with the history of the origins and lifestyle of the Slavs and ended with the mid-17th century in the first edition. The second and third editions (1678 and 1680) end with the Chyhyryn Campaigns of 1677-1678. "Synopsis" covers the history of Kievan Rus', the Mongol invasion of Rus', and the struggles against the Crimean Tatars, Ottoman Turkey, and Poland. The author of the "Synopsis" asserted that the Russian tsars were the legal successors of the Grand Princes of Kiev. "Synopsis" is notable since it clearly demonstrates that the idea of uniting all East Slavic people under the authority of one state was born not in Moscow but in the south-western lands of former Kievan Rus' and designed in Kiev. The purpose of the work is to "achieve a precarious balance between glorifying the Muscovite tsar on the one hand and defending Kiev’s own claims to power on the other." The appendix of the "Synopsis" contains lists of Russian princes, Polish Voivodes in Little Russia, Cossack hetmans, and Kievan metropolitans.