The famous critic and literary fighter, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Day of Literature” Vladimir Bondarenko presents to the readers a unique book: in it poets of different directions came together, and therefore “reconciled”, because they are all our history, as they have already become history of the USSR, grand style, 20th century. This is an encyclopedic collection of creative portraits of prominent Russian poets of the second half of the 20th century, and an autobiographical narrative about the turbulent events that shook the Soviet Empire, and memories of a bygone - bright and tragic - literary era, which is turning into a majestic myth before our eyes. Regardless of aesthetic schools and political views, all the heroes of this book are united by one thing - they are the last poets of the empire: Nikolai Tryapkin and Leonid Gubanov, Nikolai Rubtsov and Joseph Brodsky, Tatyana Glushkova and Bella Akhmadulina, Yuri Kuznetsov and Oleg Chukhontsev, Vladimir Vysotsky and Yunna Morits, Igor Talkov and Gennady Shpalikov... The book will certainly interest not only poetry lovers, but also teachers and students of the humanities.