The new book by the famous Russian historian, publicist and chronicler of the formation of the new Russian statehood Nikolai Zenkovich covers the turbulent year of 1996, which went down in modern history as the beginning of the end of the Yeltsin era. Readers will learn the truth about Boris Yeltsin’s victory in the 1996 presidential election. About whether his main competitor Gennady Zyuganov really won the elections in the first round, but gave the victory to Yeltsin. The circumstances of the State Duma's denunciation of the 1991 Belovezhskaya Accords on the dissolution of the USSR, the history of the scandalous removal of a Xerox box with 500 thousand dollars and the subsequent resignation of Korzhakov, Barsukov and others are presented in a new way. The rise and fall of General Lebed, the rise of Chubais and the death of Dudayev, the capture by militants Grozny in 1996 and the conclusion of the Khasavyurt Peace Treaty, the formation of the Community of Belarus and Russia, read about all these and many other events that marked a truly fateful milestone in the history of the country.