The works of the prominent Dutch philosopher, connoisseur of Russian culture Evert van der Zweirde collected in the book give an idea of ​ ​ his many years of work and of the whole era of Soviet and post-Soviet culture, objectively, but not impassively reflected in the "optics" of his research. The articles are arranged in chronological order, which allows the reader to give several horizons of observation: you can see how the time and languages ​ ​ of our culture have changed from the 90s to the present day, how the author himself, his ideas and methods have changed, and, finally, how our perception of the recent past is changing.