If we do not understand the essence of the Soviet way of life, we will not understand our current Troubles, we will not find a way out of the hole where the will-o’-the-wisps have led us. In the depths of communal peasant communism, Soviet civilization arose, with its special view of the world and man, of bread and power. It arose in birth pangs as the only way out of the historical trap into which Russia was driven. For a moment, she opened up space for the people for such a development of mind, strength and spirit that the crusade of the totalitarian Teutonic force in the USSR was choked. The book of S. Kara-Murza is about the Soviet system with love. The first part of it covers the period from the birth of Soviet civilization to Victory in the Great Patriotic War.