If by chance, due to someone’s oversight or some misunderstanding, Alexander Morozov’s story had appeared in print exactly when it was written, it would undoubtedly have received a completely false verdict: “slanderous concoction”, “ideological sabotage”, “relapse of reactionary Dostoevshchina”. Its author could well be brought under Article 190-prime - “slander of the Soviet system.” Now, after everything that happened to us, the story can be perceived by many, rather, as a kind of nostalgia for the best that was previously in people’s souls, despite crippling external circumstances. In 1998, “Alien Letters” was awarded the Booker Prize.