The issue opens with a short novel by Gerhard Mayer (1917–2008) “Borodino” translated from German by Irina Alekseeva. This is an elegy novel: two elderly friends, a guest and a host, wander around a small town in the view of the Jura Mountains, casually remembering the past and acquaintances, most of whom have already died. And the words of the old Indian from the book that the owner shows to the guest are the tuning fork of Gerhard Mayer’s prose: ““What is life?” This is the glow of a firefly in the night. This is the sigh of a buffalo in winter. It’s a small shadow sliding across the grass and disappearing at sunset.” Russian culture and history are an important component of the spiritual experience of both heroes of the novel. And it is named so strangely, perhaps also because the Battle of Borodino is an apt symbol of the dramatic confrontation, victory and at the same time defeat that represents man’s earthly existence.