How did this happen in those years? This is one of the questions asked by the author - a popular publicist, columnist for the Izvestia newspaper, talking about those innocently convicted during the years of the personality cult, and now rehabilitated. In journalistic essays, an attempt is made to show both the origins of abuses of power, lawlessness, and their consequences, which have come to the present day. In judicial essays, it is told about the fight against crime, it is said about the costs of this struggle, violation of laws. The author touches on this issue not in legal, but in journalistic terms. He invites readers to reflect on ways to strengthen the rule of law and build a legal socialist state.