Rainer Maria Rilke. Perhaps, hardly any of the foreign poets loved Russia so much and wrote about it as talentedly as he, who once and for all called Russia his "spiritual homeland." He also learned the Russian language, because Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky wrote and spoke it. And if Rilke had worthy followers who became the pride of their native literature, then they are undoubtedly in Russia: Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva. And, perhaps, hardly any of the foreign poets are so loved and recognized in Russia as Rilke. Despite the fact that in the Soviet period his work was banned for many years. Before you, reader, is the most complete edition of Rilke's creations in Russian. A number of significant works are published for the first time, many things - including the novel "Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge" - in new translations. The three-volume book has collected the best of the "Russian Rilke," which has accumulated in more than a hundred years - since the name of the poet is known in Russia.