Duty over death. Today, this phrase sounds banal. And yet, starting from this postulate, Andrei Valentinov was able in his novel “Desertir” to give the worn theme a new sound. Andrei Valentinov asks questions that every reader should look for answers on their own Are our ideas about ethics combined with the objective laws of the development of society? And do these same "objective laws" exist? And most importantly, Should we be guided by them in our actions ,? "Desertir" seems to be the most successful novel by Andrei Valentinov today. Vasily VladimirskyI believe that Valentinov is a talented inventor . And according to Deserter, he is also a talented writer .. Lev Vershinin . Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, and Death . This was the French Revolution for the main characters of the historical fiction novel by Andrei Valentinov. But the death that reigns in revolutionary France is not omnipotent. A deserter, a former officer of the Royal Army, who crossed the line, not wanting to kill anymore, returns to life with no name, no memory. Robespierre and Danton, royalists and sans-culottes, the last of the ancient Derg people and the creators of the first radio transmitter are the heroes of the famous novel by Andrei Valentinov, one of the founders of the cryptohistory genre .