The plot of the novel is enchanting, dizzying, crazy. How else could he be if the story is told from the perspective of a character who, as a result of trauma, began to experience memory loss and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. And the hospital is not an easy one: on the department where he ended up, there was a peculiar contingent - these people were selected in childhood on the basis of genius for the purpose of studying it, genius. Once upon a time, a research institute was located in the building of a psychiatric hospital; it was later closed, and homeless geniuses remained to live here. But this is the difference between geniuses and other people, that secrets are revealed to them that are unknown to others: what is the actual mechanism of the Russian revolution, who inspired Nikolai Fedorov for his famous “Philosophy of the Common Cause”, where did the fiery “Mystery” of the composer Scriabin disappear, which was to incinerate the world, who Stalin was and why he was so cruel, how God participated in the fate of Russia, what relationships connected historical figures of the past, and what does Madame de Stael have to do with it. In general, Vladimir Sharov’s novel “Before and During” is a fascinating , a tense historical investigation full of disconcerting surprises.