About the book: 2024 / Ideas are not as important as the work to implement them. Knowledge is not as important as the ability to convince you that you are right. Prophecies are not as important as the belief in them of those around. And history rolls forward along the beaten path: the conquest of the Caucasus is completed, the liberation of the peasants is approaching, Herzen is still publishing the Bell, Pirogov operates and leads the Kyiv educational district, Bakunin is in Siberian exile, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg, Niksa is studying, Uncle Kostya is traveling and plays the cello. The war is far away, but its echoes can be heard. New acquaintances, new hobbies, new projects and new obstacles (where would we be without them). And it is unclear whether it will be possible to move this clumsy locomotive, stubbornly rolling into the abyss, even an iota..