She is a strong, principled, beautiful woman. She is a researcher at the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She has her own skeletons in her closet. It was clearly too much for the wrong people. And she was killed. More precisely, they ordered her murder.
Police Major Anastasia Kamenskaya is transferred to Viktor Gordeev’s department. Colleagues greet the obstinate beauty with distrust. And her first case is the murder of a girl very similar to her.
Two strong women. One is dead and the other is investigating her death. Kamenskaya will have to risk herself to identify the criminal and prove to others that she is not a fool.
Away match
Anastasia Kamenskaya decided to take a little rest and went to a sanatorium for treatment. But even here there is no rest for a detective in a skirt! After all, there is a murder taking place in the health resort.
The local police, who have taken up the investigation of the crime, are clearly handling the case carelessly, and refuse Kamenskaya’s help... At this moment, a very influential person, a representative of criminal structures, who is seriously interested in what is happening in the sanatorium, turns to the already desperate heroine. After all, this is his territory...
Stolen Dream
Nastya Kamenskaya had to interrupt her long-awaited vacation. She has to return to work and investigate the murder of a young alcoholic prostitute. What, it would seem, could be unusual in such a matter? How could she, because shortly before her death, the girl complained to her loved ones that someone had stolen her dream (that same obsessive nightmare that had tormented her for many years) and told it on the radio. What is it: schizophrenia or traumatic childhood memories that have broken through into dreams?
Reluctant killer
The main theme of Alexandra Marinina’s book “The Reluctant Killer” is revenge. And although it is not new, the reader will more than once have to think about whether revenge is worth it, even if the culprit deserves punishment to the fullest extent.
Criminal Investigation Major Nastya Kamenskaya will act as a hired detective at the request of her stepbrother. Her goal is the mistress of a relative who begins to fear for the behavior of his passion. However, soon Nastya herself becomes the object of surveillance, and then she realizes that the seemingly trivial matter has much deeper and more intricate roots. And around her, terrible and, at first glance, unrelated murders begin to happen...
Death for the sake of death
This is a story about a man who became angry with all people. He hates everyone, and this is due to his difficult childhood. And he was even able to get married only because his wife is the only person who annoys him the least.
And so this man, angry with the whole world, came up with a terrible plan for revenge. And a small device that provokes receptors in the human brain that are responsible for aggression can help him in his implementation.
Nastya Kamenskaya will have to figure out this semi-fantastic case, because due to the action of the device, an entire area of the city has turned into a criminal ghetto...
Sixes die first
The book takes place in the 90s of the 20th century. Within two weeks, two murders occur in the city - an employee of the Sovintsentr, who once worked at a defense plant in the Urals, and a police officer. It's clear from the handwriting that a sniper is behind this case. But how to calculate it?
The tireless Nastya Kamenskaya gets down to business. Forgetting about peace and sleep, her upcoming wedding, the MUR employee and her colleagues put together disparate facts, restore the whole picture, finding connecting link between these two crimes. But what if the sniper evokes more compassion in you than the victim?
Death and a little love
Nastya Kamenskaya made up her mind. Finally! After almost 14 years of courtship, quarrels, and refusals, she agreed to become the wife of Alexei Chistyakov. Dress, veil, witnesses, rings, registry office and... murder. It was in that Wedding Palace where Nastya was supposed to say goodbye to her free life that the beautiful bride was killed. People are in panic, shock, horror. And Kamenskaya is among them. However, having come to her senses, the heroine remembers that in addition to the fact that she is a bride, she is also a police officer.
Nastya is back in business, even if she has to postpone the wedding. Meanwhile, another person joins the murder investigation...
Black list
Lieutenant Colonel Stasov arrives with his daughter in a small resort town, where the film festival takes place. His ex-wife also takes part in it as a film critic.
A man cannot enjoy his vacation. One of the actresses invited to the festival is found dead. Then another one. And then a talented director dies.
Will the blacklist continue? What connects the dead? The lieutenant colonel hurries to take up the investigation - because now his daughter and his newfound beloved are in danger.
Posthumous image
Although Nastya Kamenskaya was going to have a good rest over the weekend, urgent work disrupted her plans: the investigator was called to examine the body of movie star Alina Vaznis.
The celebrity was strangled right in her apartment. There were plenty of suspects in this case - after all, there is always a lot of intrigue and intrigue in acting circles.
But who could be the killer? Jealous lover? Rival? Debtor of a large sum of money? Or someone who is not suspected at all?
You have to pay for everything
The main character of the book “You Have to Pay for Everything” is investigator Nastya Kamenskaya. She is distinguished by integrity, strong character, analytical mind and stubbornness. This time she will have to not only conduct an investigation, but also defend her rights and defend her good name.
What if a talented scientist was able to invent a drug that stimulates people's mental abilities, making them almost geniuses? Sounds great. But the miracle drug has a side effect: after a while, those who took the medicine die of a heart attack, and the newspapers publish headlines “Died at the peak of his creative career”...
And with the would-be scientist, and with his wife, who steps over corpses for the sake of her own goals, and with the mysterious “office,” the clever Nastya Kamenskaya will have to deal with it.
Alien mask
He was incredibly famous and popular, but overnight he became a nobody. He thought that he could outsmart fate and start over, that everything was simple. But in reality everything turned out to be much more complicated. All he had to do was resign himself and wait. Or die.
Nastya Kamenskaya is investigating a complicated crime. The apparent killer confesses to his crime, but something is wrong. But the man who was identified by eyewitnesses flatly does not admit his guilt, and Kamenskaya is inclined to believe him.
All the threads lead to the heroes’ past, in which two twin brothers were separated forever in childhood...
Don't disturb the executioner
This time Kamenskaya had to be taken to Moscow from the place of detention of Pavel Saulyak. The task was not an easy one - the man was an important witness who could influence the outcome of political races, so they tried their best to remove him.
Nastya completed her task, but then a series of mysterious crimes began: those who were guilty of the brutal murders of children, old people and girls died.
Who is this mysterious executioner? Could Saulyak be connected to this case?
Stylist
It turns out that in the life of Nastya Kamenskaya, such an iron lady who hardly allowed herself to say the cherished “yes” to Chistyakov, there was another man. Beloved man. Handsome, successful translator, expert on the East - Vladimir Solovyov. Nastya was sure that this story had long been forgotten and forgotten. But her work forces her to meet her former lover again.
In an elite cottage village, several young guys disappeared without a trace. How to calculate serial maniac? Find the thread that unites all the victims. But for some reason she brings a translator to the house, and Kamenskaya will need all her experience to unravel this tangle of secrets and cope with her own feelings...
The illusion of sin
Six years ago, a strange and terrible incident occurred in the city: a mother threw her children out the window, and then threw herself out... The kids, fortunately, remained alive, but became crippled, and the woman herself lost her memory. Irina, one of those children, now works several jobs to earn money for an expensive operation for her brother and to support her family. And then, one fine day, her brothers and sisters begin to disappear one after another...
Nastya Kamenskaya gets down to business. Her instincts suggest that the mystery of the disappearance of the children lies precisely in that ill-fated day. But how do you find out what exactly prompted the unfortunate woman to actually kill her own children? What does this have to do with a scientific laboratory studying special genes in the human body? And why does a criminal group need this data?
The bright face of death
The three friends have known each other since their student days and are still together. But then something terrible happens: one’s mistress dies and his ex-passion commits suicide, another’s wife is killed... Marina Strelnikova, the wife of one of her friends, finds a film at home showing a beautiful naked girl. My husband claims it's a friend's tape. A distrustful wife hires a detective to follow her husband.
The investigation of a series of murders is entrusted to a major from Petrovka, 38 - Anastasia Kamenskaya. And all traces lead to the distant past, in which three friends tried to hide from everyone terrible secret uniting them forever...
Victim's name: Nobody
An elderly woman was killed in St. Petersburg. Soon, already in Moscow, her ex-daughter-in-law and her husband died.
It would seem that everything is simple in this case: a suspect was immediately found who does not even try to deny guilt. But something in this story confuses investigator Tanya Obraztsova and operative Nastya Kamenskaya.
They find the true culprit and confront difficult choice. What is more important: law or human life?
Men's Games
Nastya Kamenskaya’s beloved boss, Gordeev, aka Kolobok, is leaving the department. Meanwhile, a maniac strangler has appeared in the city, attacking his victims in the entrances residential buildings. And Nastya just can’t understand why the victims didn’t resist and let the killer get to them? Maybe a woman is behind the terrible crimes?
But the murders are just one episode of a multi-step men's game, which includes struggles for power, ambition and money. And this is a chess game in which there is no place for feelings, only cold calculation. Even if it goes into expense close person. The investigation of the case leads Kamenskaya to the conclusion that the one whom she trusted infinitely is involved in everything...
I died yesterday
A series of murders takes place in the city, seemingly unrelated to each other. The director and correspondent of the TV show “Face Without Makeup” explode in the car, journalist and part-time deputy Yulia Gotovchits is killed, and the witch Inessa dies under mysterious circumstances.
Only such an experienced detective with out-of-the-box thinking, like Nastya Kamenskaya, can connect these deaths together and uncover a cunning criminal combination.
Requiem
A new investigation by Anastasia Kamenskaya and her colleagues from Petrovka, 38 begins with the discovery of the corpse of a young policeman, but the guy’s death turns out to be just an episode in a series of incredible events. After all, a detective in a skirt will have to plunge into the world of show business, full of secrets, riddles and lies.
How are the girlfriend of the deceased policeman Lera and the famous producer Vyacheslav Zotov related? Why does she live with her grandfather, who allegedly killed her parents? What does this have to do with a secret porn club? At the end of the investigation, all the seemingly unrelated facts will form a coherent and logical mosaic in Kamenskaya’s head.
Phantom of Music
Her husband is being detained on suspicion of murdering Elena Dudareva. Georgy Nikolaevich had a mistress, and the investigation has suspicions that the crime was committed for selfish reasons. Soon new details of the murder become clear: a young visually impaired boy, Artem Kipiani, spoke with the criminal on the day of the tragedy. Artyom cannot describe the face of the unknown man, but he well remembers his voice and the music playing in his car that day.
Meanwhile, Nastya Kamenskaya receives a call from a certain girl named Yulia. She introduces herself as a friend of her husband and asks Nastya to give Alexei freedom...
Seventh victim
Detective Anastasia Kamenskaya has had to deal with murder mysteries more than once. This case is no exception. The strange message is addressed directly from the screen of the television bridge on Novy Arbat, where she is giving a live interview. The message says: “If you are so smart, guess where you will meet death?”
The attacker acts logically and carefully. Nastya gives him an unusual nickname - Joker. With each clue, Kamenskaya gets closer to understanding what kind of person the killer is and how to get ahead of him. The Joker's main fetish is death, and all his clues lead to the seventh victim. Who is behind the series of murders? And will the detective be able to find the culprit?
When the gods laugh
The popular young singer Svetlana Medvedeva has a crazy fan who kills everyone who criticizes his favorite artist. And soon he begins to blackmail her neighbors as well.
Fortunately, there is a witness who knows what the criminal looks like, and the police are doing everything possible to catch him. But there is no result: the killer continues his work.
Maybe someone is playing an even more complex and cunning game? The talented detective Nastya Kamenskaya will have to figure out this case.
Unlocked door
In the life of the tireless detective from Petrovka, everything is awry. And the new boss is a tyrant, even if he leaves the service, and a series of murders is one more strange than the other, and Korotkov, who left his wife, now lives in her one-room apartment...
Four seemingly unrelated crimes will give our genius skirt-wearing detective a serious sweat. What will also make her sweat is the purely feminine desire to learn how to cook.
In general, everything is like in Nastya Kamenskaya’s life. But she’s not just a woman, she’s a female policeman.
Law of three negatives
The Law of Three Negatives states: “Never do, say or think anything unless asked to do so.” Did anyone ask Nastya Kamenskaya to get involved in a murder case? No, but how can one resist here... The chain of investigation leads the restless detective, who has just recovered from surgery, to the fact that this crime has a double bottom and... even a triple one.
This is how a vacation at the dacha of an old acquaintance turns into another complicated matter for her, full of dangers.
Co-authors
43 years old is the age at which you begin to think about your future old age. But, no matter how much Kamenskaya would like to mope a little, duty calls, and crime does not sleep. This time Nastya will have to investigate the murder of a young woman. A tangled trail leads her to a trio of detective novel authors who write their books under the pseudonym “Vasily Bogouslavsky.” And then events take a completely unexpected turn...
Howling dogs of loneliness
Under unclear circumstances, a young girl, a law student, was killed. But this murder was only one link in a chain of crimes. The talented detective Nastya Kamenskaya managed to connect the student’s death with a number of other seemingly completely different murders of young people. Now the most important thing remains: to find and catch the criminal, and also to write a dissertation on criminology.
City tariff
At first glance, this matter seemed simple and understandable to Anastasia Pavlovna. What to think: the man got rid of his annoying mistress and “ran away.” Everything is very clear. But Nastasya is not used to making hasty conclusions. She always needs to get to the bottom of things. While she was “digging,” new circumstances emerged - everything turned out to be very confusing.
Colleagues got involved in the work and helped find out new details. They clarified the matter to some extent, but on the other hand, they confused it even more. Kamenskaya understands that this is not a simple family showdown, there is a whole system at work here, sweeping away everyone who gets in the way, and Nastya is one of them. She became part of a game whose outcome was impossible to predict.
Life after Life
Having become a pensioner, Nastya Kamenskaya continues her detective work. This time she needs to find a criminal who kills elderly women in an unusual way. As always, there are no obvious motives, and the suspects are through the roof.
The book will delight you with an atmosphere that is devoid of unnecessary moralizing or utopian sentiments. In addition to the detective investigations of the pensioner Kamenskaya, you will get to know other aspects of her life.
Personal motives. Volume 1
Anastasia Kamenskaya retired. However, this woman cannot enjoy peace, and retirement means for her only retraining. After all, now she has become a private detective in the agency of a family friend and former colleague Vladislav Stasov.
Her brother Alexander gives Nastya a new case. In a small southern city An elderly doctor who has long since retired from practice is killed. Who could need this? Nastya and her husband Chistyakov go to Black Sea coast to figure it all out. Moreover, this time Kamenskaya’s husband will help his wife a lot in her dangerous investigation...
Personal motives. Volume 2
Someone kills a helpless old man who would have died in a month anyway. It would seem, what is the point in this action?
So the daughter of the deceased wanted to find out the truth and find the attacker. To do this, she came to Moscow and is now attacking the poor head of the private detective agency Stasov with requests.
In the end he agrees. Now he has to understand the crimes and accidents that happened many years ago.
Death as art. Volume 1. Masks
An attempt has been made on the life of the famous director Bogomolov, and our friend Nastya Kamenskaya, together with the young operative Anton Stashis, will have to figure out this case. It will be even more difficult to identify a criminal and a liar among the actors, because they are real transformation professionals. Where will this complex and confusing case with a mass of suspects lead the detectives? What does the assassination attempt on the director have to do with the events of the distant past?
Death as art. Volume 2. Justice
Continuation of the book “Death as Art” from the series about detective Nastya Kamenskaya. Now Anastasia works as a private detective, without losing ties with management.
Critics note that in this detective story Marinina focused more on the philosophical background than on the dynamics of the plot. So, in the course of the story, the reader will have to meet again the heroes of the book “Views from Eternity” - the Stone, the Raven, the Serpent and a new member of the now quartet - the cat Hamlet.
The title of the second volume, “Justice,” speaks for itself. With the help of a young and very unusual partner, Anton Stashis, Kamenskaya will have to get to the bottom of the origins of the “theatrical” murder.
Angels don't survive on ice. Volume 1
Bounce. Another jump. The cold steel of the skates cuts through the blue ice like lightning... Figure skating– a beautiful and graceful sport. Millions of people listen with bated breath to the performances of our skaters.
And now a brutal murder bursts into this fairy-tale world like a dark shadow. Mikhail Valentinovich Boltenkov, a trainer of the highest category, a legend, a master who raised more than one champion, was shot dead. The body was found near the house of his colleague Valery Lamzin. Witnesses confirm: the coaches met before the murder, they swore and threatened each other... The matter, as they say, is “in the bag.” But Nastya Kamenskaya and her friends from Petrovka - Anton Stashis and Roman Dzyuba - have their own opinion on this matter. They discover the truth about the inhumanity and cynicism that permeates the blue ice. Ice on which angels cannot survive...
Angels don't survive on ice. Volume 2
In the second half of the story, all the disparate threads that appeared in the first volume are gradually pulled together into one point. Everything will definitely come together in the end, and the truth will come out - there is no doubt.
The brave team of Anastasia Pavlovna, Anton, Roman and a very law-abiding lawyer are persistently trying to prove Lamzin’s innocence. In conversations, they seem to explain to readers the difficulties of legal practice and police records. Throughout the fascinating narrative, the author actively educates the reader, telling a lot of legal subtleties. It also reveals the underside sports life- a continuous knotted fabric of bribery, intrigue, broken destinies and insidious betrayals.
Execution without malice
Experienced detective Anastasia Kamenskaya certainly cannot be called a supporter of the calm and quiet life: She is regularly at the center of twisted detective stories.
So in the thirty-second book of the “Kamenskaya” series by Alexandra Marinina, another innocent trip to Verbitsk in search of land for her brother becomes new material for investigation. A city on the eve of elections, a series of murders of environmentalists, a farm beloved by the mayor that harms nature... Will Kamenskaya once again be able to get to the bottom of the truth?
The denouement of “Execution Without Malice” promises to be unpredictable, intertwining long-standing personal problems. The intricately woven story makes it clear that the past can catch up with us at any moment in time, and draws attention to important social problems. Want to understand what we're talking about? Open the pages of the book!
Unlike many other authors who write about objects lying outside of them personal experience, Marinina is familiar with the work of an investigator and the criminal world firsthand. Her entire family worked in the police field: her grandfather and father are policemen, and her mother is a specialist in the field judicial law. At first, little Marinochka was going to become a film expert, but genes won.
She graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and worked for a long time at the Academy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. She started as a laboratory assistant and ended her career with the rank of police lieutenant colonel. She defended her PhD thesis on the topic “The personality of a person convicted of violent crimes and the prevention of special recidivism.” Since 1987, she began to engage in crime forecasting and analysis. She has written more than 30 scientific works, including the monograph “Crime and Crime Prevention in Moscow”, which was published by the UN Rome Interregional Institute on Crime and Justice.
Besides scientific activity, Marinina slowly wrote: first for the magazine "Police", in which she wrote the column "Security School" (about how to protect yourself from scammers and criminals of all kinds and stripes), then - essays on modern Russian crime for the newspaper "Prolog", and humorous stories for the Express newspaper (these were a kind of " bad advice" on the topic of how to "get into trouble").
The police lieutenant colonel wrote her first detective story in 1991 - of course, by accident. Colleague Alexander Gorkin proposed to jointly publish a popular science book about drugs, but Marinina found it boring, and she suggested writing in the detective genre. In less than a month, “The Six-Winged Seraphim” appeared, which was published in the same magazine “Police”. Everyone really liked the book, and Marinina decided to create her own work. During the month-long vacation, the novel “Coincidence of Circumstances” was born, where readers first met Anastasia Kamenskaya and her friends. Then the story “Game on a Foreign Field” was born. In 1995, Marinina was “discovered” by the EKSMO publishing house, which published two of her stories, and by the Lockid publishing house. At the same time she received a prize from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for best work about the Russian police (for the works “Game on a Foreign Field” and “Death for the Sake of Death”).
In 1998, the first contract was concluded with foreign publishers, and now Marinina’s books are translated into many languages. In the same year, Marinina married Sergei Zatochny, colonel, associate professor at the Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Their first meeting took place in extremely unromantic circumstances: they met on a tram on the way to work. The husband participates in the creation of all his wife’s books, and he is also the prototype of her two constant heroes. "The idea of the book is discussed with him. He reads page by page when he comes home from work in the evening, and I report to him what I did that day. He reads everything and constantly monitors me... He makes sure that I don’t make any professional mistakes or blunders. Even acts as a censor, making sure that I do not violate the rules of secrecy,” says Marinina.
Alexandra Marinina
All wrong
They say there are people who like to go to funerals. I’m not one of them, maybe I’m not yet at the right age to like such events, or maybe my character is not suitable for this business. And in general, I am not sure of the veracity of the information about the existence of such people. Personally, I don’t find anything good or even interesting in funerals, but I spent last way I, despite my relative youth, already have many: few young athletes manage to make sports their profession for many happy years, but there are countless of those who give their pumped up muscles and skills acquired in sports sections for good money to security services or for even more money goes to crime. So we bury it.
But today's funeral, to which I showed up, as expected, in black jeans and a black turtleneck, holding an armful of fluffy multi-colored asters in my hands, was different. Solid, calm, crowded. And what is most curious is that there was not a single hysterical cry, no one who would break into sobs, clutch his heart or lose consciousness, as often happens when someone suddenly dies, whose death no one thought about and whose unexpected departure plunges loved ones into shock . No, no the slightest sign I didn't see any shock. And it was strange.
However, no, I won’t lie. Just two days ago, I was interrogated for a long time and painfully by an investigator, because the results of the autopsy showed absolutely unambiguously: death was the result of poisoning, or rather, cardiac arrest caused by a huge dose of a cardiac drug prescribed to one of the family members. And not even to the one who eventually died. You can mistakenly take the wrong pill, but one, and not a couple of dozen, moreover, dissolved in a large mug of tea. These are the pies...
I was one of the first to arrive at the ritual hall and sat in the car, watching those arriving. About five minutes after me, a sparkling car, fresh from the car wash, appeared, from which, to my great amazement, Igor, the district police officer who served the microdistrict in which the Rudenko family lived, got out. I met Igor a long time ago, when I had just started working for Rudenko, I liked him, and we even drank beer a couple of times at a nearby eatery and chatted about all sorts of nonsense, and I, of course, noticed that his outfit was discreet, but signature, however, it never occurred to me that he drove such a car. However, perhaps the car was not his, he just took it from someone to get to the ritual hall, located quite far from the center.
Igor noticed me, came up and sat down next to me in the front seat.
“Great,” I nodded, “came to show respect and express condolences?”
“The investigator told me to be there,” he answered gloomily. - Observe. Well, you understand, death is criminal. Opera will also catch up now. Pasha, do you know the order?
I nodded again. I remember how many of these funerals there were...
– You will go with the first group, with your loved ones.
I looked at the district police officer in surprise. At the farewell ceremony, first the closest ones are invited to the hall where the coffin is installed, in other words, family members, they are given the opportunity to be alone with the deceased, to cry, and only then, ten to fifteen minutes later, when the first wave of hysterics has passed, they let everyone else in , after which the actual civil memorial service or funeral begins, it depends on who it is. I am not a member of the Rudenko family, and if it is possible to classify me as close, it is a very big stretch. Who am I to them? Hired employee.
“Inconvenient,” I said doubtfully.
“I understand,” there was unexpected softness in Igor’s voice, “I understand everything, Pasha, but I’m asking you. Please. It’s not at all safe for me or the wanted officers to go with my loved ones, but there should be prying eyes. Necessarily. The killer is one of those who will go with the first group, with their relatives. And it is very important to know who stood where, how they behaved, how they looked, who was talking to whom, who was crying, and who was just pretending to grieve. Well, Pash?
I was silent, staring at the dashboard.
“You understand,” Igor continued insistently, “the first moment when they see the open coffin is the most poignant, it always happens.” Most of them only saw a person alive and well, then he is taken away by an ambulance, then they report that he has died, and then they see him already dead in a coffin. This is an incredible shock. At this moment people have poor self-control, do not think well, and very often something comes out that they would like to hide. Well? Can you help?
In general, he persuaded me.
And here I am standing in a small beautiful hall, in the center of which rises an open coffin, and I watch those present, hiding my eyes behind dark glasses. Everyone here is wearing glasses, every single one of them, except for the youngest, six-year-old Kostya, and you know, either the person is covering his eyelids that are red and swollen from tears, or he wants to hide a dry, indifferent or full of gloating look.
Which one is the killer? Who? But it’s definitely one of them, because there’s no one else.
Could I have known two years ago, when I came to work for Rudenko, that everything would end like this?
* * *When I was still a boy, my mother constantly insisted that I needed to be smarter, more cunning, more careful, that with my battering ram straightforwardness, which I naively considered honesty, I would only suffer, but it would still be of no use. Apparently, Mom was right, but to appreciate this, I needed to live for almost thirty years, get bruises and bumps, win some prizes and medals, coupled with the title of international master of sports, teeter on the brink of disability and, in the end, to be left without work and without housing. Or rather, there was still housing, but very conditional, but there was no work at all. No. The condition of my shelter was that, gritting my teeth, I was allowed to live in it for free, but for a very short time.
Like many young people, I committed, more than once, typical mistake: believed that “it will always be like this.” There will always be youth, strength, health, physical condition, sports success, there will always be work and money, and love will always be there too. Moreover, the objects of love itself change periodically, but still, every time there is a firm conviction that it will never end.
I was a fool, and I paid for it. No, not a fool - an idiot, and a fantastic one at that. Probably, I was just lucky in that area called personal life, and each subsequent passion arose on my way at a time when I had not yet parted with the previous one, so the problem of housing somehow did not hang over me: I simply moved with one apartment belonging to the lady of my heart, to another, the owner of which became my new lover. And why the hell did I think it would always be like this?
Our columnist Evgeniy Korobkova talked with the writer about her new collection “Were the 90s”
Eksmo publishing house published “Were the 90s,” a two-volume collection of memories of the hard years. A poignant confession, a document of the era in 150 stories from former schoolchildren, actors, businessmen, doctors, the unemployed... The most amazing thing about them is not a kaleidoscope of plots, but an atmosphere that says more about the people than a thousand books. According to the author and compiler of the collection, Alexandra Marinina, it seems that our people have forgiven that terrible time.
“There are many stories of pain and bitterness”
I know that you don’t like comparisons, but you can’t do without them. The idea of your book completely repeats the idea of another author...
Do you mean Svetlana Alexievich?
Well, of course. “Second-Hand Time” and “Byli-90” are surprisingly similar to each other. But here are the conclusions... If Alexievich is an accumulator of resentment, in the spirit of “we will not forget, we will not forgive,” then with you the same stories are presented in a completely different way...
I didn't expect it myself. When we first announced the start of the project, I prepared myself for a difficult test. I was preparing to drown in a sea of tears and sad memories. But, to my surprise, people wrote about something else. I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised. I discovered for myself that over a quarter of a century, emotions go from “difficult, hard and bad” to “difficult, hard, but fun.”
FROM BOOK
“...We had two student daughters. Every week they sent bags of food by bus - jars of pickles, jams, salads, potatoes, vegetables, fruits from the garden. Sometimes you get on a bus and there’s not the smell of gasoline, but the smell of pies. There were a lot of us, such parents...”
Nadezhda Kovaleva, Vishnegorsk, Chelyabinsk region
The collection contains a story about a fool. He was once the head of a laboratory, but then he got hit on the head, became weak-minded and constantly smiled, as if he was glad that he had survived. Don't these stories resemble stories of fools rejoicing that they survived?
No, they are not blissful fools. Before us are people who know how to laugh. Both over yourself and over your experiences. Don’t think that everything in the collection is so bright and rosy. There are few, to be honest, stories written with great pain and bitterness. For example, the story “In Short” from Barnaul resident Ivan Obraztsov. The author sent the text to the site, and, apparently, he himself did not expect that it would be missed: everything there is dotted with obscene words and harsh judgments. I was shocked, but when the author found out that he had been selected for the collection, after a while he himself smoothed out the wording and removed indecent expressions...
FROM BOOK
“After the 90s, there is no one in Russia with a clear conscience. Everyone - gentlemen and ladies, workers and peasants, government and people - are all tied up and are now actively trying to wash themselves off. And no other person interests us, we are on our own, we are all new variety of the Pharisaic community... And again I remember what a literary friend of mine said: “If in the dashing 90s it was an act to walk around with a punk hairstyle on your head, then today it is a great act to be a decent person.”
Ivan Obraztsov, Barnaul
"I bought it at severance pay garden. Grandma Anfisa sold it because my grandfather somehow stayed with a pitchfork to guard the beds in the garden... They stabbed him with these pitchforks... 1992-1994. In the fall, hay reserves in the villages burned. 100-200 tons each. The arsonists rode motorcycles. The livestock were left without food for the winter. They drove him to the meat processing plants for slaughter directly in a herd to Poland with horns, hooves, and skin for sausages.”
Georgy Barabanov, Kaliningrad.
“The truth is both there and there. There is no truth"
And such stories about horrors compete with stories about the bright nineties. Here, they say, is how Koloboks escaped a thousand deaths, like Leonov, dodged in the airlock. And new opportunities appeared - like trips to the games “Clever Men and Clever Girls” and winning a trip to Italy from the magazine “Periwinkle”. Where is the truth?
I don’t know how your generation was taught, but for example, we were always told that truth and truth are two different things. Absolute truth unattainable... although I'm talking about philosophical aspects criminal trials... Therefore, we operate with the concept of “truth”, which means that what was said was said sincerely. A person may be mistaken and not know the whole picture of what happened, but he speaks as he feels. The truth is both there and there. There is no truth.
- Why is the truth so different between you and the same Alexievich, where there is only chernukha?
Svetlana Alexievich draws on her inner core. And she selects what is in tune with this core, fits into a certain concept that she has in her head... While the collection of books “Were the 90s” is a mosaic. What the authors sent, they sent. I did not filter out stories based on the principle of whether I agree with this view or disagree. I only assessed the specifics: does this story characterize the 90s or could have happened at any other time. As a result, the book included 99 authors, 150 stories, since some authors wrote several texts.
FROM BOOK
“We made skirts from crepe de Chine flags, but there were nylon and satin. The nylon ones had various stripes of different republics, the satin ones - only the RSFSR with a hammer and sickle in the corner. Tracksuits began to be made from nylon flags. In the very color! Then the fashion for them began. And ours are so beautiful, with different stripes lined with satin flags, they looked good at that time... I still have memories and a green scarf that I cut out from the fabric of the Lithuanian SSR, exactly matching my new trousers.”
Lyubov Asterina, Perm
“You can understand a lot about the people who inhabit our country”
I have always been interested in the problem of perception and evaluation of the past. And I realized that these stories would have been completely different if they had been collected the day after they happened. Then it seemed impossible to survive. Your husband lost his job. He knows nothing but how to drive nuclear submarines. You are forced to travel in inhuman conditions, not caring about the dirt, the danger, to shuttle to Poland in order to somehow get your family out... Twenty-five years later it turned out that you made it, survived and saved your family. Therefore, the assessment “it was unbearable” can no longer be made. The internal censor, who has seen many other sorrows during this time, will correct.
FROM BOOK
“...My thoughts were occupied with the question: where and how to make money, I settled on the idea that I would grow many, many carrots and hand them over to a procurement office. Why carrots? It’s just that at that time it was more expensive than potatoes and beets... I was allocated 12 acres and this entire area was planted with the most inexpensive seeds “Losinoostrovskaya Carrots”... How much physical effort was spent on this plot... And now the time has come harvesting. I've never seen carrots like this. They were some kind of monsters... what made them grow without a crumb of fertilizer is a mystery. With the proceeds I bought small refrigerator, which I have long dreamed of, as well as a beautiful fur coat and soft felt boots for my daughter.”
Victoria Bocharova, Novgorod region
- In general, as I understand it, over a quarter of a century people simply forgive.
I would say this: over twenty-five years, stories have been touched by human wisdom. This book could only appear now. Previously, the perception of events would have been more emotional and - therefore - less wise, and later - many details would have begun to be erased from memory, and many would have passed away.
There is an episode in the book when the writer Vladimir Megre (wrote the book “Anastasia”, and then 10 more novels with the same heroine - Ed.) defrauded book sellers and pocketed the money for himself. The deceived sellers wrote in your book, but Maigret did not write. Does this mean that the book contains the stories of those who undeservedly suffered, and not those who were offended and robbed?
Absolutely not. And Maigret's story could appear. Perhaps he would have written this story differently. And he would have his own truth. Another thing is that he didn’t send...
For many, the nineties became a time when laws did not apply at all. And morale has been shaken. And now in your book the authors are ironic about the past. Where did their crimes and transgressions of moral principles go? It turns out that anything is possible, just to survive?
Much was allowed then, because there was a huge gap between reality and legal responsibility. You could do whatever you wanted and you wouldn’t get anything for it, because there was no such article. But it cannot be said that in the end the one who survived was right. There is the truth of the internal censor. Twenty-five years later, we look at the events of the past more strangely and decide for ourselves: we were right or wrong, we sinned against ourselves or not. These memories are purely technologically useful. While they were writing, they realized for themselves who was right and who was wrong.
Absolutely not. Do you know why? Because this book is not literature.
- What is this? Sociological experiment?
Writers, when they write stories, do not describe life. They construct and invent situations to work with an idea. And here is a clean picture, a photograph. "Were the 90s" - this social project, dedicated to how our memory and attitude to events changes after a quarter of a century. A lot can be understood about the people inhabiting our country.
Read completelyYes, dashing. But not only
How and why Alexandra Marinina collected stories about the 90s
Here we are in 2018, and those dashing 90s have moved one more step away from us. Years full of shocks, sorrows, hopes - and something else elusive that makes your heart ache. And for some reason I want to take a closer look at that life where both the country and our destinies stood at a crossroads. Here is a famous writer, recognized master detective genre, Alexandra Marinina suddenly collected a book of folk memories, “Were the 90s.” How did she do it?
First let's be clear: this is only part of big project"People's Book", which has been running for five years at the AST publishing house. I decided to compile the collection “Were the 90s” for two reasons: firstly, it’s interesting to try something that I haven’t done before. Secondly, I lived through those years at a quite conscious age and remember them well. I was very interested to see how others remember that era. Stories were sent to me by e-mail, and at my own discretion I selected from them something typical, touching, and interesting for the book. I remember this moment. At the very end of the work, a story signed by Ivan arrived. And she had such a fierce, sometimes simply hysterical, rejection of the 90s that at the first moment the thought flashed through my mind: well, they definitely won’t let this happen. And then I came to my senses: who won’t miss it, I myself am the main censor here! Also an iconic feeling - from there, from the 90s.
- And if we generalize, what view of that era prevails among your authors?
Perhaps I’ll note something that surprised me: in general, today there is no such tragedy with which the 90s were perceived in close proximity. Many people have a slight smile: yes, it was difficult, scary, painful, but we survived it, and what doesn’t break us makes us stronger. There is, for example, a chapter called “We are forty years old” with an absolutely wonderful summary from the author: “We, who were 20 at this very turning point, when hopes collapsed, professional aspirations went down the drain, and everything we were taught at school , turned out to be unsuitable - we survived. And today we have become so strong that we don’t care.” And my own main feeling from this book is that everything is honest here. This is one of the first honest books about that decade.
At first it seemed to me that these would be entirely stories about crimson jackets, racketeering and bandits. And from people aged 70 plus I expected parallels with Soviet reality, which had just sunk into oblivion: how good everything was in the USSR and how bad it became “under the democrats.” But I soon realized that our fellow citizens’ view of that decade was much more complex, deeper, and multifaceted.
- First entrepreneurs, private business - there are probably many such stories too?
There are many, but here are the stories about successful business almost not. And I understand why. A person who developed his business in the 90s and remains successful to this day does not participate in the “People's Book” project, since he does not read books and will not write for us. But those who tried to set up their business, but did not succeed, responded and returned to their previous profession or mastered some other one. However, it is not so much the technologies of success that are important here, but emotions.
Here, for example, are two stories on the topic of decency. In one, the heroine is a woman who began to catastrophically lose her sight and lost her usual job in a publishing house. But she had to survive, so she got a job as a courier. Her commitment and responsibility were appreciated: she was given a bag on wheels, which she took to a specified place in the city. And on the last day of her work, before she was paid, she was told: “Do you know what you drove?” They open the bag, and there are stacks of dollars. Imagine, she, receiving pitiful pennies, transported huge sums, and it never occurred to her to open the bag...
The second story is almost the same thing, but with the opposite sign. The author tells how at the turn of the 90s he and a friend founded a business that transported cars from Germany. And how amazed he was by the gullibility of the Germans, which allowed them to be deceived out of the blue. This story is full of admiration for the scope and ease with which it was possible to earn money by deception at that time. When not only the Iron Curtain collapsed, but also all sorts of norms.
And here is another very instructive story. Two young and successful managers of one of the largest banks found themselves without jobs after the 1998 default. And in order to somehow provide for themselves, they bought cheap potatoes in the region and sold them on the outskirts of Moscow, not far from the Mayak station. There were still not enough shops and markets at that time, and people on the way from the bus home bought potatoes from guys selling in the cold. This is how the guys survived the dark period.
- Have you ever tried to start a business yourself?
Never. Here I answer the business, which is not at all interested in writing, with complete reciprocity. I'm not cut out for this kind of work. Because this is either a collective matter or the work of a leader-manager. I, an absolute loner, am categorically not suitable for either the first or the second.
Let's go back to the 90s. Then our people had the opportunity to freely travel abroad, which also came as a shock to many. Do you have a lot of memories about this?
Certainly. I especially remember the story “Overseas Princes” about a young girl who for some reason was sure that “they” had completely different guys, wonderful and sublime, and not gray cattle in tracksuits. And imagine her disappointment when the girl became convinced that princes on white horses did not ride along the streets abroad.
- Do you often remember the 90s?
I’m built in such a way that I don’t like to indulge in memories or rummage through past grievances. As well as making long-term plans. I try to live here and now, and not allow emotions or regrets about yesterday and tomorrow into my life. But in general, my 90s were not much different from those in which our entire country lived. When we all woke up with new prices at old salaries, when we were dumbfounded by the exchange large bills, for which little could be bought. In 1998, there was a default, and in the collapsed bank all the fees that were transferred to me disappeared foreign publishers. But now you can write whatever you want. And it was precisely this feeling of freedom that determined the main mood of the 90s! And, apparently, not only for me, but also for very, very many.
By the way
Journalists from Trud also took an active part in the release of the collection “Were the 90s.” Thus, literary commentator Vladimir Guga, acting as the coordinator of the project, at the same time talked about how in turbulent times he worked as a street musician, a loader, an extra at Mosfilm, an art director in a rock club and a street vendor.
No less impressive is the track record of our sports special correspondent Georgy Nastenko, who had to earn a living as a fitness instructor, peddler, construction worker, musician and security guard (perhaps the latter profession is still one of the most popular in Russia)...
And it’s okay, they survived, they hardened themselves, they didn’t fall into the abyss on the steep turns of fate. Although, alas, there are many stories that do not have such an optimistic ending.
Read completelyAleksey Yuryevich Sotnikov, a master model of a cigarette case made in his company, brings it home for modification. Before demonstration, the customer needs to insert cubic zirconia into it instead of stones, if any are provided for in the sketch. The design suggests stones in the cigarette case, but there is something elusive, intangible, preventing the eye and mind from enjoying it. Before inserting cubic zirconia, you should thoroughly understand this...
Readers can expect a new investigation, during which Anton Stashis, Roman Dzyuba and Gennady Kolosentsev, already familiar to us from the book “Fight of Tigers in the Valley,” are trying to find out who is behind the murder of the wife of a successful businessman, who appeared the night before at a social reception wearing a dazzling, expensive necklace by the author. work entitled "Last Dawn".
