Published in the science fiction magazine “If” Nos. 6–8 and 10 for 2003. Abstract from the magazine: In 1989, the almanac “Chronograph” published an essay by Kir Bulychev “Stepdaughter of the Epoch”, which caused an unprecedented stir for literary critical research hype. This is understandable: the essay was dedicated to the most unstudied, most dramatic and controversial period of our science fiction - 1917–1941. Kir Bulychev himself hinted in the preface that a continuation would follow. Older readers, of course, remember how they were waiting for it... But, unfortunately, the second essay did not appear. Years later, the author returned to the era that interested him, and from this issue the magazine begins publishing a series of historical and literary essays about little-known pages of Russian science fiction. Please note that these are not impartial notes from a critic, but the historical and literary observations of the writer.