Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev is a writer, sociologist, publicist, one of the most significant Russian thinkers of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. Coming from a poor peasant family, a participant in the war, Alexander Zinoviev was critical of the socio-political system in the USSR, and in 1978 he was expelled from the country. He returned to Russia only in 1999, having in recent years changed his point of view on the Soviet era. He still saw its shortcomings, but also noted many of the features that brought Soviet civilization to the forefront. In the book of Alexander Zinoviev, the Soviet era is shown against the backdrop of the life of the author himself and his family: revolution, collectivization, Stalinism, repression, war, post-war situation in the country, subsequent years, and at the same time a deep analysis of Soviet reality. The book is read with unflagging interest from the first to the last page, successfully combining the features of an adventure novel and a scientific treatise.