In the book “APPARATUS” by Viktor Pribytkov, who worked from 1972 to 1985 in the CPSU Central Committee (for the last nine years as an assistant secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and from 1984 to 1985 as an assistant to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee K. U. Chernenko), with it tells with documentary precision about the “secret kitchen” of the work of the CPSU apparatus. The book tells for the first time about the behind-the-scenes, but uncompromising struggle for power, “court intrigues”, miscalculations and defeats of the leaders, their human weaknesses - sins, illnesses, vices. The book uses previously unpublished 32 photographs, memories of A. I. Mikoyan, about the mistake of I.V. Stalin and the Caribbean crisis, 4 letters from I.V. Stalin to A.I. Mikoyan, a letter from G.K. Zhukov to N.S. Khrushchev, a letter from Chinese leaders about providing military assistance. Photos and documents from author's personal archive.