The prose book “Shirvan Cognac” walks a dangerous line - between real life and fiction, between history and a private person, between love and politics. But everything that is important in this life is also the most dangerous. Therefore, the prose of Alexander Arkhangelsky, whose heroes come face to face with a formidable historical process, captures and does not let go. In the story “Near Dacha,” the shadow of the deceased Stalin flickers, the pages of the lyrical story “1962,” structured as a conversation with a teenage son, contain reflections of the Cuban missile crisis, the characters in the story “Cognac Shirvan” end up in Karabakh a few weeks before the start of the conflict and find a disappearing paradise that could turn into hell.