The author of the book is a former chairman of the KGB of the USSR, a member of the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), which existed for three days in August 1991. Sharing with the reader memories of his own life path, he reflects on the most important historical events of which he was a witness or direct participant. was. A significant place in the memoirs of V.A. Kryuchkov is devoted to figures of the highest echelon of the party and state leadership. Based on the enormous amount of information that the author had as chairman of the KGB of the USSR, in the second part of his memoirs he talks about Gorbachev’s perestroika, the difficult work of the state security agencies during this period, the activities of the intelligence services of foreign powers in our country, and analyzes the processes that led to the collapse USSR.