River Chronos

When Kira Bulychev was asked in an interview on the «Culture» TV channel to name the most important of all that he had written, the master replied that he had an affair, if not of his entire life, then at least of the last decade. The cycle «River Chronos», he spoke about it. In the novels that are part of the cycle, both of the writer's creative aspects found embodiment: history and literature. They combine the most diverse literary directions: family saga, science fiction, alternate history, detective, love story, satire, and life tragedy... River Chronos, according to Bulychev, is a capricious river, like History itself. You can dive into it—and emerge not where you expect, and see not what you hope to see. For example, Constantinople-Istanbul, stormed by Russian troops who won in World War I. Or the coronation of the son of Emperor Nicholas... The main characters of the novels in the cycle, Andrei and Lydia Berestovy, go through the meat grinder of all the misfortunes that fell on Russia in the early 20th century—from the hell of the world slaughter to the February and October revolutions and the events that occurred later. The fantastic device that Andrei inherited allows the heroes of the cycle to move through time, and this wonderful property gave Kira Bulychev the opportunity to describe the history of our country as he saw it through the eyes of an unbiased observer.