Biographies and memoirs

“I became a real bandit quite unexpectedly. That is, I was already one, but I myself didn’t even suspect anything about it. I, of course, showed some tendenc...

“When I was little, I always came up with something. I don’t remember exactly, but I probably thought ordinary life was too boring. I must say that as I grew...

“Vadik solemnly took out a large thick book from his briefcase and said: “Alla Arkadyevna, I brought an encyclopedia about insects and something else.” Dad a...

“Human memory works strangely, at least for me, for sure. If it weren’t for numerous family photographs and my mother’s enthusiastic stories, from which anyo...

“Instead of the Lord God, we had Him. A completely cozy old man (in distant childhood he didn’t seem any different), always ready to understand, console, giv...

“The small village of Coal Mines is an almost indistinguishable point on the map, lying closer to America than to the populated part of Russia. The populatio...

“The more I live, the more clearly I see: the earth pulsates with blood, like the human body. If it lives for a long time without war or revolution, it perfo...

“At the age of four, on Easter week, I found myself at the altar for the first time. In the Temple of All Who Sorrow Joy, like a stone Easter cake, large and...

“Marina loved to travel. I loved preparing for the trip. In advance. Per month. Better for two. She liked to pack her own bag, separate from her parents’, an...

From the author

In my literary destiny there was, strictly speaking, only one event: in 1970 I realized that I was a conservative. Novelty, extolled a...

“The blade of a “Canadian”—a hockey skate—dulled from long use is still able to cut through the tarnished old ice on a bend, raising fountains, waves of rain...

“Now I understand why Santa Claus always gave me bears for the New Year. I thought it was me who had a complex, but it turns out it was he who had a complex....