In literary form, Alexander Petrov describes the fate of his grandfather, Ivan Arkhipovich Streltsov. Ivan spent his childhood in the village of Veryakushi, Lukoyanovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, then there was a wild youth, marriage, service in the Semyonovsky regiment, and then in the palace guard of Emperor Nicholas II. However, the events that followed - the First World War, the abdication of the Tsar, the revolution, the civil war, the rise to power of atheists and atheists - completely turned Ivan’s well-established life upside down. Raised in a believing family and loving church service and prayer from childhood, he could not stand the trials that befell him and retreated from the faith of his fathers. Having exchanged God for relative material well-being, he gradually turned from Streltsov into the atheist Kulakov. However, the Lord does not want the sinner to die and until the last minute of his life gives him the opportunity to repent. But what will Ivan’s repentance turn out to be like - like that of the Apostle Peter or like that of Judas?