On the surface, the three heroes of this book seem to share only one thing: at one time they were famous Soviet poets. Everything else—origins, artistic style, fate—is different. Anatoly Mariengof (1897–1962), after a brief rise, moved away from poetry, remaining in literary history above all as Yesenin’s friend and author of memoir prose. Boris Kornilov (1907–1938) was torn out of literary life and died during the years of repression. Vladimir Lugovskoy (1901–1957), after a loud and well-deserved fame, went through a difficult creative and human crisis that he managed to overcome only late in life. At the same time, the book’s author, the writer Zakhar Prilepin, finds in the biographies of such different poets the main thing that connects them: all of them were witnesses to great and tragic events in the history of Russia in the 20th century—they didn’t hide, didn’t turn away from those events, and managed to reflect them in their work. A thoughtful reader will undoubtedly notice how contemporary, even today, some of these poets’ lines sound—how relevant they still feel.