The proposed book is a holistic, internally consistent narrative about what was happening in the country, starting from the thirties of the twentieth century and ending with the beginning of the nineties. The author is not an economist, not a historian, but a writer; his attention is concentrated on the people with whom fate brought him together. The first part publishes the memoirs of doctor V. G. Nedovyesova about Karlag, about repressed scientists, Chizhevsky, Belinkov. The second part tells about Kazakhstan of the 60s, labor and literary. This is, on the one hand, Kazakhstan Magnitogorsk, on the other, the magazine “Prostor”, which unites the best literary names - Shukhov, Dombrovsky and others. The third part is the writer’s understanding of the events of today, when the resurrection of the works of Magzhan Zhumabasva, Anna Nikolskaya takes place. The book makes extensive use of letters, documents, and memoirs.