The book by Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922–1993) is dedicated to the great Russian writer and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766–1826), author of “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and “Poor Lisa,” creator of the brilliant “History of the Russian State,” publisher of “Moscow magazine" and "Bulletin of Europe". Published in its first edition in 1987, this book has become a cultural phenomenon in itself. Its genre is defined as a biography of the soul: at the center of the author’s narrative are not just the external facts of the life of his hero, not a simple analysis of his multifaceted creativity, but, above all, the formation of the personality of a great writer and citizen who truly created himself.