The new book by Nikolai Zenkovich is thematically related to the one published in 1999, “The Central Committee is closed, everyone has left. A very personal book,” which was a great success among readers and was published in three editions within one year. In the book “There Was Such a Country...” the author, who worked at that time in the CPSU Central Committee, answers the question “1985-1991: what It was?" To some his answers will seem like repentance, to others the belated repentance of a “veteran” of perestroika, to others the testimony of an eyewitness admitted to the perestroika kitchen. And, perhaps, no one will be mistaken...