The book “The Crown of Thorns of Ataman Dutov” is the penultimate work of the famous researcher of the Civil War in Russia Vadim Alekseevich Goltsev, author of the books “Siberian Vendee”, “Kuldzha Endgame of Colonel Sidorov” and others. “The Crown of Thorns of Ataman Dutov” presents a fascinating investigation. a kind of historical detective story telling about the last months of the life of one of the leaders of the White movement, the Orenburg military ataman Alexander Ilyich Dutov and his death. The liquidation of ataman Dutov in Chinese Xinjiang is one of the very first operations of the Soviet special services abroad to eliminate opponents of Soviet power, which before was still shrouded in secrecy. And although many artistic and documentary works were written on this topic, films were made and theatrical performances were staged, all the details of the operation, as well as the identities of the ataman’s direct killers, remained unknown. Vadim Goltsev, using documents from the previously closed archives of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Security Committee Kazakhstan and others, having interviewed many relatives of the participants in the security operation, put the finishing touches on this dark and extremely complicated matter.