The book by the famous writer of the war generation Grigory Bakalanov includes memories of his youth at the front, the first post-war years, the beginning of the era of perestroika, and the literary life of the 60-80s. Baklanov’s documentary and artistic prose is not only an eyewitness account, but also a journalistically vivid understanding of the experience, a kind of “preliminary results” that will be of interest to the widest range of readers.