A Life for the Tsar
Rubinstein asked for a libretto from Sollogub, who had also worked on Glinka's successful opera "A Life for the Tsar", on what was ostensibly also a nationalist theme, the success of Dmitry Donskoy at the Battle of Kulikovo (1380) against the commander of the Tatar Golden Horde, Mamai. However he ignored the historic elements in favour of a fairly routine operatic love story.