The book presents the first detailed biography of the outstanding prose writer and poet, subtle master of words Valentin Petrovich Kataev (1897–1986), devoid of ideological bias. Few people know that the writer came from an old priestly family; among his close relatives were new martyred archbishops. The hero of Socialist Labor Kataev was at one time a white officer, a student of Bunin, sat in the execution basement of the Odessa gubchek...The writer Sergei Shargunov, relying on memories, archival documents, memoirs and biographical literature, brilliantly managed to recreate a difficult, partly mysterious life closely intertwined with literary creativity Valentina Kataeva is a complex and contradictory person, deeply involved in the historical events of the 20th century.