This is a description of my life shown in a wide context. My narrative is popular and interspersed with short stories and accompanied by a Bibliography. These stories and many inserted details which are hardly known even to my compatriots are interesting in themselves and ensure some insight into the life of my generation. Many authors have dwelt on the horrors of the GULAG; here, the readers will find the much less known dread of living in the Soviet Union at large during the Stalinist period. And I especially focus on the life of my nation.