The name of Wolf Messing, both during his life and after his death, is surrounded by an aura of mystery, which neither his own memoirs nor the many books and articles dedicated to him could dispel. Who was this native of Poland who fled to the Soviet Union from the Nazis - a clairvoyant who foresaw the future, a brilliant artist or a clever charlatan? Why did he hide many details of his past even from close people or deliberately surround them with mystery? Did he know Stalin, Einstein, Gandhi, was he in prison, did he solve crimes with the help of his unique gift? The authors of most works about Messing uncritically praise him or, on the contrary, accuse him of all sins. The first biography of the great telepath in the ZhZL series, written by historian Boris Sokolov, impartially examines all the known evidence about Messing, bit by bit reconstructing the picture of his life - not as fascinating as in novels and films, but, nevertheless, very unusual.< /p>