The book is a kind of biography of an outstanding literary critic and thinker M.M. Bakhtin. The period of his life, dating back to the late 1930s - early 1940s, is covered. The history of the creation of the book about F. Rabelais and its defense as a dissertation is traced, an interpretation of some aspects of the theory of carnival is given. The correspondence of M.M. Bakhtin with B.V. Zalessky, V.V. Kozhinov, V.N. Turbin. The documentary basis of the book is archival materials. For everyone who is interested in the problems of literary criticism and the fate of the culture of the XX century.