Benedict Sarnov is a literary critic, publicist, author of many literary biographies (“The Case of Mandelstam”, “The Case of Zoshchenko”, “Mayakovsky. Suicide”, “The Solzhenitsyn Phenomenon”), and memoirs (“There Was No Boredom”), as well as four volumes of historical essays “Stalin and the Writers.” The plot of the new book by Benedict Sarnov unfolds against the backdrop of historical events - from the early and mid-60s (Khrushchev’s dispersal of the exhibition in Manege, the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel) to the present day (1993, the storming of Bely Houses). The heroes of the book - Bulat Okudzhava, Naum Korzhavin, Viktor Nekrasov, Vladimir Voinovich, Fazil Iskander, Andrei Sinyavsky, Vladimir Maksimov - are people who played an important role in the life of the author.