V.P. Nekrasov’s autobiographical and memoir prose covers the period of the 1930s–1980s. The book includes works created by the writer after forced emigration and for the most part little known to the modern reader. These are, first of all, “Notes of an Onlooker”, “Saperlipopet”, an afterword to the foreign edition “In the Trenches of Stalingrad”, “A Look and Something”. “No” , don’t give in to temptation, don’t return to the places where you spent your childhood... don’t meet someone who’s long gone,” wrote Viktor Nekrasov. But, opening this collection, we return to our past - together with Nekrasov. His amazing, kind, mocking memory, his understanding of that time will be the key to our fascinating, albeit sad journey. For many readers, Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov (1911–1987) today remains a legend, the author of the textbook story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad” (1946), which gave him a start in literary life and brought him the Stalin Prize. This was the beginning. And then “In the Hometown”, “Kira Georgievna”, “The Incident on Mamayev Kurgan”, “On Both Sides of the Ocean” appeared... The latter brought him the label “tourist with a cane”. Perhaps now such a nickname causes slight bewilderment, but then, in 1963, already far from us, it served as a signal for the beginning of persecution: the writer was showered with reproaches of betrayal of ideals, arrogance, and snobbery. And after 10 years he had to leave his native Kyiv forever. And for another ten years Nekrasov lived and wrote in exile... There are always fresh flowers on his grave in the small municipal cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois near Paris...