The works included in this book were published several times in the last century. Every commander of the Red Army was required to read “The First Strike,” and the popularity of the “Soviet Sherlock Holmes” – Nil Platonovich Kruchinin – and his faithful friend Suren Grachik can be envied by the authors of many of today’s bestsellers. No wonder Yulian Semenov himself advised his friends: “Learn from Shpanov.”