Roland Bykov (1929–1998) kept diaries from the age of fifteen until the very end of his life. One doesn’t need to say that before the reader unfolds the story of the country, the theatre, and cinema—but first of all, it is the story of a unique person, a brilliant director (“Aibolit-66,” “The Little Kept,” “Telegram”) and an actor (“The Overcoat,” “Andrei Rublev,” “A Test on the Roads,” “The Commissar,” “Two Soldiers,” “Letters from a Dead Man,” “From the Life of Resting People,” “The Dead Season”…). This book is striking in its frankness. “Fierce Roland,” as his close ones called him, wrote notes for himself—without thinking about censorship or any future publication.