Dear Reader! Everything you read about here is fiction. You should not look for any analogies with real people who once lived or are living now, whom you may have met yourself, or whom you have heard about from your friends and acquaintances. You should also not look for any analogies with real events that once happened or are currently happening, which you yourself may have witnessed or heard about from your friends and acquaintances. This is only a figment of the imagination of the Author who brought these events together and these people and bringing them to your attention. They are inseparable, both from each other and from this narrative, outside of which they cannot exist.* * *Everything you read here is true. Perhaps you yourself have met, or heard from your friends and acquaintances about people who once lived or are living now, and are extremely similar to those with whom you will meet here. Perhaps you yourself had to meet, or hear from your friends and acquaintances about events that happened once, or are actually happening now and extremely similar to those that you will read about here. The Author’s fantasy boils down to the fact that he, according to his own understanding, collected these events and people together and presented them to your attention. In fact, most of them did not and do not have anything to do with each other, and most often do not even suspect each other’s existence.* * *Both of the above judgments are fair, and it’s up to you to decide which one suits you best. I, according to generally accepted tradition, can only point out that: “THE CHARACTERS AND EVENTS DESCRIBED ARE FICTIONAL, AND ANY COINCIDENCES ARE RANDOM”•