From 1983 to 1988, Valentin Sidak was an assistant to the head of the First Main Directorate (foreign intelligence) Vladimir Kryuchkov. When the latter headed the Lubyanka, the author took the post of head of the KGB Secretariat. Thanks to his official position, he witnessed key moments and significant events in Russian history, which only a very limited circle of people knew about. Moreover, most of the evidence was not preserved in the archives, since this was taken care of directly by the bosses and executors themselves. What events in the highest echelons of Soviet power preceded the collapse of the USSR? Did Mikhail Gorbachev control the situation in the country in the spring of 1991 or avoid making tough political decisions? Were Gorbachev-Yakovlev-Shevardnadze agents of influence who, on orders from the West, destroyed the USSR or did they “want the best, but it turned out as always”? Freemasons in modern Russia: a party for lovers of costume parties and mysterious rituals or a real political force? For the first time, Valentin Sidak answered these and other questions.