Chapters of the book are "windows" that open in opposite temporal directions: towards deep constants and historical trends of culture, as they are seen from today's Russian everyday life, and towards the current modernity, as the past clarifies it. In addition to the current essays of the author, interpreting "cases from everyday life" so that they come close to a large historical time, the book contains dialogues with well-known experts - cultural scientists, political scientists, psychologists, philosophers, economists, representatives of fundamental science, with artists and musicians, film and television figures discussing this or that angle, in which the connection of the current order (or disorder) of things with cultural and historical subjects.