The book of conversations of the historian and philosopher Mikhail Gefter (1918–1995) contains the most complete presentation of his views on Soviet history as the culmination of Russian history. The emergence of Soviet civilization and its suicide, Russian communism and the world - through the fates of historical characters who loved, hated and killed each other. Gefter knew many of them personally and through his circle of acquaintances. The sketches of intellectual biographies of V.I. are unusual. Ulyanov (Lenin) and Joseph Stalin. In conversations between Mikhail Gefter and Gleb Pavlovsky, history appears as a chain of actions, where each of the events could have been different, but the choice is politically inevitable. You can't get away from it. (trial version)