A doctor by training, an “anti-adviser” in spirit and the brightest innovator in Russian prose of the 20th century, Aksenov, already at the very beginning of his career, outlined the themes and problems that would concern him in the period of his mature creativity. Aksenov’s first stories began like this called “youth prose” of the USSR. It was then that the expression “sixties” first appeared, which became the designation of an entire generation and era. The problem of conformity and loyalty to the regime, the willingness to sacrifice principles and career prospects for the sake of friendship - all this will be in Aksenov’s prose years later. But no one will write about all this better than the one who encountered it for the first time, was young and desperately believed in justice.