"Any history is always a set of private human destinies, and no one needs another story, especially since it still does not teach anyone anything. Lev Rubinshtein This collection contains evidence of remarkable people, half-forgotten events that connect us with our ancestors who lived a difficult, worthy, sometimes heroic life. In addition to a large official history, recorded, rewritten and edited daily, there is a small story that can be restored until the living witnesses of the recent past have died. This 'microhistory' is the adventures of a grain of sand in a huge mountain of sand. But each grain of sand - an individual with its own unique history - bears the imprint of time. This is an encyclopaedia of Russian life, told by its citizens, and this story is not a ceremonial, but an everyday one. There is no rhetorical and complete falsification of the words about patriotism, but there is an important work whose goal is to restore historical justice towards those who died in large and small wars, was dekulakized and exiled, and fell victim to state terror. Lyudmila Ulitskaya" -- Rough summary of the summary.