Arnold Lvovich Kashtanov was born in Volgograd in 1938. Graduated from the Moscow Automechanical Institute. For many years he worked as a foundry engineer at the Minsk Tractor and Minsk Automobile Plants. A. Kashtanov’s first story “What do you want, guy” was published in the Neman magazine in 1966. In the 70-80s, his novels and short stories were published in the magazines “New World” and “Znamya”, they compiled 5 books of prose, and were translated into English and German. He has written several scripts that have been used for film and television productions. He has lived in Israel since 1991. There he published a book on social anthropology, “The Giving of Tears” (1996). Essays published in 1996 and 2000 in the magazine “Friendship of Peoples” are also devoted to this.