The painting on display depicts a winter forest at dusk, with an Old Russian warrior in armor fighting two Tatar-Mongol warriors in the foreground among the trees. The work by Adam Schmidt illustrates the legendary events of March 4, 1238. Rostov Prince Vasily Konstantinovich (Vasilko), who was taken prisoner after the battle on the river Sit, died by the enemy’s hand, refusing to swear his allegiance to the Khan. In the Nikon Chronicle there is a description of Vasilko:

The artist Adam Adamovich (Abramovich) Schmidt was born on January 19, 1921 in a family of German Lutherans in the Novo-Saratov colony near Petrograd. The artist’s father Abram Yegorovich Schmidt and mother Ekaterina Feodorovna Godfried came from peasant families. Adam was fond of drawing since childhood. While studying at a German seven-year school, his drawings were published in the German newspapers Die Trompete and Rote Zeitung. In the 1930s, Schmidt was educated at an art school and continued his professional studies in the art workshop at the Sailors’ Club in the studio of Professor Porfirov, one of Ilya Repin’s students. From 1939 until the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the artist continued painting. Since the beginning of the war Schmidt participated in defense work in besieged Leningrad. In the winter of 1941–1942 he worked at timber harvesting. In March 1942, the family of Schmidt was evicted and deported to Siberia.