The work is included in the magazine “If 1996 No. 7–8”. Awards and prizes: “Bronze Snail” - 1997 // Journalism. “The Wanderer” - 1997 // Criticism (Publicism). The essay “Fighters of the Terracotta Guard” begins with memories of the seventies, when the current masters were young and were just learning to write stories. The memoir would not have been a fantastic memoir if Eduard Vachaganovich had not spun it around a curious idea: each state, they say, has its own Soul, which determines the character and habits of the people, but sometimes, due to the intervention of various forces, countries change souls, and the result is who knows What. For example, Peter the Great will open a window to Europe, the Russian soul will disappear, and its place will be taken by the Chinese soul... “We are all Chinese,” one of the characters concludes. That is why no European models of social structure take root in our country.