Dmitry Bykov is one of the most prominent figures in modern literary life. Poet, publicist, critic and constant troublemaker. The novel “Justification” is his first work in prose, and it also fully reflected the paradoxical nature of the author’s thinking. The writer offers his own fantastic version of the sad events of Russian history of the last century: the victims of Stalin’s terror (who survived interrogations) were not shot, but exiled to special camps, where a breed of superhumans was forged - unbending, invulnerable, insensitive to heat and cold. And after Stalin’s death, they began to emerge from oblivion - strange phone calls were heard in the apartments of relatives and friends, secret meetings were scheduled. One of the “survivors” is the famous writer Isaac Babel...