Arsen Bayanov's book, published in 2005, has already been republished several times and has long acquired cult status. It will change your ideas about the life of Alma-Ata in the “golden Kunayev” period. You will plunge into the world of bohemia and black marketeers, visit the death row and boys’ showdowns, learn about the ruthless gangs of the “dashing nineties” and the most notorious crimes during the construction of socialism. KGB agents and the mystical world of ghosts will reveal their secrets to you, you will fall to the bottom of the “delirium tremens” and become a gambling “smeared” gambler, you will find yourself in the bizarre world of jazzmen, rock musicians and hippies. Follow the author through the most famous party places in the city: Teatralka, Akkushka, Kalamger, Broadway, Tulebaika, Malukha, Kizy, Shahai, etc. Read all about Almaty Beatlemania and the Beatles monument in Alma-Ata, and how Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Apple were directly involved in this project (letters from some of them are published on the pages of this book). And nevertheless, this is not at all a documentary film of Alma-Ata during the Brezhnev stagnation era, as someone might think. This is the author’s personal, subjective view of another side of the life of the city at that time, which they tried to ignore, to silence, but which everyone knew about, and which in some places was more important than what was emphasized by the official authorities: Alma-Ata is Komsomol or communist... The book is illustrated with photographs from the archive the author and direct participants in that life when we lived behind the Iron Curtain, but did not know the whole truth about it.