This book is an intimate portrait of Sergei Dovlatov from his close friends in Leningrad and New York, famous writers Vladimir Solovyov and Elena Klepikova. Hidden details of a martyr's life, fatal love and tragic death. The authors are grateful to Lena Dovlatova, to whom we dedicate the book about her husband, for her invaluable help in its creation. We take this opportunity and thank the Serezhins and our friends - Izya, Solomon and Svetlana Shapiro for oral memories and home photographs and photo archivist Natasha Sharymova for the rarest photographs that have become historical. Alas, we cannot name X, Y & Z, because very valuable information from them was received under conditions of complete anonymity. Special thanks to the RIPOL Classic publishing house, which has already released six books in our previous series, and this seventh opens the portrait “line” “Fragments of a Great Destiny”: the book about Dovlatov will be followed by the anniversary book “BEING JOSEPH BRODSKY” - for the poet’s 75th anniversary.