“Thank you, gentlemen. I am very glad that we met, because the fate of Vertinsky, like no other fate, reminds us of the impossibility and tragic unnecessaryness of leaving. Perhaps this is precisely the most bitter lesson he taught us. As we know, Vertinsky hated Soviet power exactly before leaving and after returning. The rest of the time he loved her. Maybe this is the optimal mode for a poet: to live here and hate everything here. This gives a very strong lyrical break, lyrical tension..."