This book is about the life and work of the legendary writer, the author of the famous action-packed political detective stories “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, “TASS is Authorized to Declare”, “Petrovka, 38”, “Ogareva, 6” and many others. A talented writer appears before us as a large, integral personality - a principled person, a caring father and a loving husband. The author, the writer’s daughter Olga Semenova, successfully included into the narrative the memories of the writer’s friends and colleagues: academician Yevgeny Primakov, actor Lev Durov, Baron Eduard Falz-Fein, letters from relatives, and excerpts from the writer’s works. It is thanks to these documents that we can more fully imagine the personality of the founder of the political detective genre in our country.