Memoirs of Yu.A. Fedosyuk about many outstanding people of the 20th century can be compared to snapshots.I.V. Stalin and his formidable Prosecutor General A.Ya. Vyshinsky, the brilliant composer D. Shostakovich and one of the most famous Soviet film directors G. Alexandrov, writers K. Simonov and A. Tvardovsky, musicians G. Neuhaus and D. Oistrakh... Not with any of these and many other people mentioned in book, the author was not closely acquainted. However, as the memoirist rightly asserts, sometimes not a long communication, but a short meeting with a person or even observing him from afar makes it possible to draw a very similar portrait of him, which is at the same time a fragment of the picture of an entire era. For the general public circle of readers interested in history.