Viktor Vladimirovich Gerashchenko is the most famous Russian banker. He headed the country's main bank four times (twice the State Bank of the USSR and twice the Bank of Russia). In banking and financial circles, they note Gerashchenko’s high authority in the professional environment, his courage in making difficult decisions, his sense of humor and rich, figurative language. The reader will find all this in the new book by V. V. Gerashchenko, which talks about how to avoid fatal mistakes in managing the country's finances. Analyzing the experience of past years and the current state of the Russian financial sector, the author argues that default is very likely. It is still possible to avoid it, but for this it is necessary to take a number of measures, not only of an economic, but also of a political nature.