Kuvshinovo, Soligalich, Pestyaki, Ostashkov, Gryazovets, Krasnye Baki... For Mikhail Baru, traveling through the bearish corners of the Moscow, Ivanovo, Vologda, Tver, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma regions is not only a study of the controversial history of Russia, but also an opportunity to see the established outside the capitals there is an image of our country, where traces of the past are clearly visible behind the rickety present. The possibility of free transition between times makes this space almost fabulous, and the author-traveler enthusiastically chronicles the metamorphoses that every now and then happen not only to the inhabitants of these places, but also to himself. Mikhail Baru - poet, novelist, translator, chemical engineer.