Sergei Yesenin is loved like, probably, no other poet in the world. And-all at once-both the poems and himself, as a person. But if you look at his life and work a little more closely, then hard and irreconcilable questions immediately arise.Is Yesenin a Soviet poet or an anti-Soviet one? Christian poet or God-worshipper? A poet for a bland audience and languid girls, or an innovator who influences world poetry to this day? Is he a peasant poet or an imagist? Who was considered the main rival in poetry and why? Who were you really friends with? What is his relationship with the Bolshevik leaders? How many children does he have, and by how many wives? Which of his women did he really love, after all? Did he drink-or was it the envy of others? And if he was drinking, who made him drunk? What were the criminal cases brought against him for? Was he a bully, as he wrote about himself - or a victim of circumstances? What did he do for the year and a half that he was outside of Soviet Russia? And finally, suicide or murder?The book provides answers not only to all these questions, but also to many others. Zakhar Prilepin, with his characteristic brightness and originality, reflects in detail, day by day, the biography of Sergei Yesenin, making unexpected conclusions and forcing the reader to empathize acutely.