The book is dedicated to previously unexplored aspects of the work of Vladimir Nabokov. The interconnection of ideas that found expression in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Vladimir Nabokov is revealed against the backdrop of a large-scale historical, philosophical and cultural study of the significance for modern European civilization of the phenomenon of ancient tragedy, the ideological heritage of Socrates, and the theme of the acute crisis of spiritual values (“the decline of Europe”). The polemical sharpness of the author's theses allows us to outline the “painful points” of modern humanities about man.