This novel is written in Russian. The reader may notice that at no point in the text is there mention of specific dates. The time when all this was happening is depicted rather vaguely. You have my word, I struggled to avoid this drawback. But I could not. The only thing I can say about it - is that the course of events is likely to have happened in the first half of the twenty-first century. Maybe at the beginning of the first half, maybe in the middle, and maybe even at the end. That's all. However, I can indicate with precision and full responsibility where it all happened. This happened in a country where I was born, in the midst of the people with whom I grew up. This country and its people which include myself, Russia and Russians, I know thoroughly and responsibly can assure the reader: this country and people does not change with the passage of time. They will always be just as they are now, and no other. Therefore, I do not need to specify when an event occurs that happened with the main character, detective writer Anatoly Bartov. But do not think that my definition of Russia and Russians in this preface is a negative connotation. Not at all. Some of the Russians are good, some are not so good, but most of all Russians are unique unlike any other nation inhabiting the planet. Now, in our time, we remain special, and furthermore there is no indication that in the future we shall be changed and become some other, just as the ancient past of Russian mirrors its present. In this case, we Russians are convinced that we do not need to change. Let the whole world accepts us as we are. A few words about the main character, Anatoly Bartov. Everything that you will read is dictated by his spoken word, and as I joined these stories, I experienced a combination of enthusiasm, cruelty, love and laughter. I saw that in some descriptions of otherwise serious events, it is difficult not to laugh. But I could not change anything in his words to make it more politically correct. A few words about Mr. Bartov, whom I met after being admitted to the Literary Institute Gorky. We had enrolled in the same creative workshop on prose, which was conducted by lead writer Boris Vasilievich B-y. Eventually we became friends and it became clear that our destiny has much in common. We both were born and raised in Moscow. We both graduated nautical academy, except he went to Rostov-on-Don, while I studied in St. Petersburg. In the end, we both became engrossed as authors in the detective-novel genre, both of us hooked on adventures. And the rest ... However, the rest you will learn when you read to the end the novel "Ob etom dano znat ne vsem"