The book by Alexander Hort is dedicated to the life and work of the famous director, public figure, professor at VGIK Mikhail Ilyich Romm. Contemporary with the century, Romm was a participant in such important events of the Soviet era as the Revolution, Civil War, Five-Year Plans, the Great Terror, the Great Patriotic War, the struggle for peace, thaw. Mikhail Ilyich has always been in the forefront: he worked in the State Film Production Administration, was one of the initiators of the creation of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, headed creative associations at Mosfilm, taught at VGIK. As a director, he made 14 films - 12 feature films and two documentaries . All of them were included in the golden fund of Soviet cinema. Here is the first domestic Western "Thirteen", and an unforgettable duology about Lenin ("Lenin in October" and "Lenin in 1918"), and a drama about the feat of atomic scientists ("Nine Days of One Year"), and a passionate journalistic "Ordinary fascism": this documentary attracted 20 million viewers, so many have never been dreamed of in any other artistic film. Romm was awarded many orders and medals, he was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the USSR. He won the Stalin Prize five times, and his films have repeatedly won prizes at international film festivals.