The book by the famous Russian film director Andrey Konchalovsky is the memoirs of a person with an exceptionally interesting life. Growing up in the family of the author of the USSR State Anthem Sergey Mikhalkov, knowing both the favor of the authorities and the disfavor of superiors, and creating in totalitarian conditions honest, sincere films ahead of their time—such as “The First Teacher,” “Siberiada,” “A Romance with the Beloved,” “The Story of Asi Klyachkina…”—he found the courage to go against the system, starting his biography from scratch in Hollywood. And there, too, he managed to make outstanding films that no other Soviet colleague had been able to achieve. With rare candor Konchalovsky tells about his famous family, the stages of his coming of age, about overcoming fears and taboos that are natural for a person in a totalitarian country, about friends, about women he loved, and about great artists and movie stars his creative fate brought to him.