The three heroes of this book, it would seem, are united by only one thing: at one time they were famous Soviet poets. Everything else is origin, creative manner, fate - different. Anatoly Mariengof (1897-1962), after a short take-off, moved away from poetry, remaining in the history of literature primarily as a friend of Yesenin and the author of memoir prose. Boris Kornilov (1907-1938) was torn out of literary life and died during the years of repression. Vladimir Lugovskoy (1901-1957), after loud and well-deserved fame, experienced a difficult creative and human crisis, which he could overcome only at sunset. At the same time, the author of the book, the famous writer Zakhar Prilepin, finds in the biographies of such dissimilar poets the main thing that connects them: they all witnessed the great and tragic events of Russian history of the 20th century - they did not hide, did not turn away from them and managed to reflect them in their work. The thinking reader will undoubtedly note how modern and even topical other verses of these poets sound in our time.