Andrei Grachev was an assistant and press secretary to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. It was he who, on December 25, 1991, announced to the international press and the stunned world about the death of the USSR. In this book of memoirs and reflections, the author returns to a unique moment, which was at the same time the finale of an unprecedented historical experiment associated with the 1917 revolution and the beginning of a new stage in the life of the Russian state. Why did Mikhail Gorbachev not use military and power levers to maintain his power? Is Boris Yeltsin to blame for the fact that Crimea remained part of Ukraine, and did not become part of the Russian Federation already in 1991? One of those who were in the inner circle of the President of the Soviet Union until the last minutes of the existence of this state answers these and other questions and shares the secrets of big politics. Three decades have passed - with his obituary book, Andrei Serafimovich Grachev finally escorts the USSR into history and offers to look into the future. Without fear, but also without illusions.