The book is dedicated to one of the most paradoxical poets of Russia of the 20th century - Boris Slutsky. He tried to write for the enlightened masses and the enlightened authorities. As a result, he was among the few who managed to update the Russian poetic language. Seemingly stern and all-knowing, Slutsky was a poet of pity and sympathy. “A cast on the wound”—that’s what David Samoilov called his ethics and aesthetics. Soldier of the Great Patriotic War; A writer, in the 1940s–1950s “widely known in narrow circles,” he became the first singer of the “Thaw.” His poems experienced a rebirth during the period of “perestroika” and still retain their freshness and strength.