Sergey Belyakov — historian and writer, laureate of the «Big Book» award, finalist of the «Yasnaya Polyana» and «National Bestseller» awards, author of the books «Gumilev the Son of Gumilev», «The Shadow of Mazepa», «The Spring of Nations», «Parisian Boys in Stalin's Moscow». Before you is not an ordinary, but a double biography of the writers, brothers — Evgeny Petrov and Valentin Kataev. It is also a book about their friends — Ilya Ilf and Yuri Olesha, and their acquaintance Mikhail Bulgakov. About the powerful patrons of Ilf and Petrov: the genius of Bolshevist propaganda Mikhail Koltsov, the dreadful Lev Mekhlis, and Molotov's deputy Solomon Lozovsky. About the world of Soviet history, in which one had to survive and succeed. Petrov's life is surrounded by myths. Who was this mysterious man really? At 20, Evgeny is the best employee of the Odessa Criminal Investigation Department, creator of an intelligence network. At 25, he becomes the author of a super bestseller. At 33, together with Ilf, he goes on a mission to America for Stalin and Mekhlis. In 1940, he leads the largest Soviet magazine. A brilliant career, and very strange. His demise is also shrouded in mystery. Valentin Kataev is considered a cynic and conformist, completely loyal to Bolshevik power. But in Soviet literature, one cannot find a supporter of «pure art» as consistent. He demonstrated loyalty to the authorities, but until the very death of Stalin, behaved in a way that he was not even accepted into the party. Kataev is a lonely sail in his native Black Sea. The book uses materials from archives, including sources previously unknown to the writers' biographers
