Probably no one in the USSR could compare in popularity with Arkady Raikin. A brilliant master of reincarnation, "a man with many faces," he played in performances, performed on the radio, recorded records, acted in films and voiced cartoons. Raikin went far beyond his genre, becoming a public figure. From all over the country there were letters to him thanking him for his art, requests to help buy a motorcycle and demands to ensure the sale of shaving blades. He spoke such bold words from the stage that the audience was breathless, enriched the Russian language with the word "string bag" and idioms like "specific taste." Famous satirists wrote for Arkady Isaakovich, from Mikhail Zoshchenko to Mikhail Zhvanetsky. He was friends with Lev Kassil and Leonid Utesov, hosted Marcel Marceau, Yves Montana and Simone Signoret. Stalin raised a glass for his health, Khrushchev became the object of his parody, and Brezhnev helped his theater move from Leningrad to Moscow. The book of Doctor of Art History Elizaveta Uvarova is colored by her personal attitude to the hero, with whom she happened to work.