The madness unfolding on the pages of the fantastic novel «Before and During» by the famous Russian writer Vladimir Sharov somehow turns out to be a reflection of the madness of our history in the 20th century. The Russian Revolution and the famous «Philosophy of the Common Cause» by Nikolai Fedorov, the fate of Madame de Staël and the vanished «Mystery» by composer Alexander Scriabin—an «orchestrated» work that was destined to destroy and burn the entire world to the ground— intertwine with rare credibility to explain and interpret what we have lived through. Sharov’s novel, saturated with extreme feelings and passions, reads like an exciting detective story.