In the work of the classic of Russian genetics V.P. Efroimson (1908-1989), the idea of genetic inheritance of the moral, ethical and aesthetic foundations of personality is defended. Within the framework of the problem of “man and environment,” the determining role of early childhood impressions is considered. A special chapter is devoted to the relationship between genius and hereditary psychopathology using the example of F. M. Dostoevsky. The book is written in a relaxed manner, with excursions into history, sociology, and ethnology. For biologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, teachers.