Boris Stepanovich Zhitkov (1882–1938) considered the novel “Viktor Vavich” to be the book of his life. Work on it continued for more than five years. During the writer’s lifetime, only separate parts of his “encyclopedia of Russian life” from the times of the first Russian revolution were published. In this work, we can easily recognize our beloved Zhitkov from childhood - witty, precise and tenacious in detail, free and laconic in language; at the same time, we have before us a book by an unknown master, following the traditions of the European adventure and Russian psychological novel. The circulation of the complete edition of “Viktor Vavich” was put under the knife in the fall of 1941, after a devastating internal review by A. Fadeev. The copy from which - 60 years after the author's death - one of the best Russian books of the 20th century is finally published, was preserved by Zhitkov's friend, researcher of his work Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya. This publication is dedicated to her memory.