Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev - writer, essayist, memoirist, translator. One of the last major writers of the Silver Age. Indifferent to the fashionable literary trends of his time, Zaitsev remained faithful to the traditions of Russian realistic literature. Having gained recognition and fame in pre-revolutionary Russia, he left his homeland in 1922 and spent almost 50 years in exile. The influence of the religious and philosophical thought of N. Berdyaev and L. Shestov, with whom the writer maintained close relations, affected his works such as Athos, Valaam, and The Life of St. Sergius.