This is the fourth volume of the “King of the Nihilists” series. The first volume is here: Ideas are not as important as the work to implement them. Knowledge is not as important as the ability to convince you that you are right. Prophecies are not as important as the faith in them of those who are nearby. And history rolls forward along the beaten path: the conquest of the Caucasus is completed, the liberation of the peasants is approaching, Herzen still publishes the Bell, Pirogov operates and leads the Kyiv educational district, Bakunin in the Siberian exile, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg, Niksa is studying, Uncle Kostya is traveling and playing the cello. The war is far away, but its echoes are heard. New acquaintances, new hobbies, new projects and new obstacles (where would we be without them). And it is unclear whether it will be possible to move this clumsy locomotive, stubbornly rolling into the abyss, even an iota.