Alexei Rykov (1881–1938) headed the government of the Soviet Union for almost seven years, and before that he was the de facto leader of the Council of People's Commissars during the illness of Lenin, whose immediate successor he became. Together with him, the country wandered in the labyrinths of the NEP, and it was a path in which there were still more victories than defeats. And the industrialization of the first five-year plan is also in many ways Rykov’s policy, his economic strategy. In the book by the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Historian” magazine, Alexey Rykov appears not only as a politician, but also as a person who overstrained himself in the political struggle, made compromises, betrayed himself, intrigued, but tried to preserve the ideals of his revolutionary youth. Some documents and photographs are published for the first time. And for the first time, we can engage in such a serious conversation about one of the most skillful Soviet managers of Lenin’s galaxy. This is a human story that will be of interest to everyone who is not indifferent to our past. And to the future.