There are people who need no introduction. There are books that do not need annotation. The Diary of Paola Volkova is just such a book by just such a person. Who was Ola Odesskaya - and how did she become Paola Volkova, always impeccable, the one whom her contemporaries idolized and whom we admire. She seemed to be personally acquainted with all the Greats of different eras - she knew artists and actors, sculptors and directors, poets and architects - as if she lived at the same time with them and was their muse.