A brief history of Russia at the beginning of the twenty-first century in episodes. Military coup in Russia, war with Japan, conflict with NATO, etc. From the author: I started writing this book in 1999, at the beginning of the Yugoslav conflict. The unwitting initiator of its creation was the American bombing of Belgrade. The thought arose, what would have happened if Russian history had gone a little differently? I did not take everything to extremes; I have described the best version of such events. I finished it just on December 30, 1999, to the words of the President: “I’m tired...” It is gratifying that I guessed a lot: the struggle of the new leader with the oligarchs, the division of the country into districts, the terrorist attack on America... (Evgeny Sartinov, July 2009).