Work on the Arbat trilogy, which Rybakov considered the most important work of his life, began in the mid-1950s. “A mighty, powerful thing of Shakespearean strength,” remarked L. Annensky about *Children of the Arbat* at a meeting of the editorial board of the journal *Druzhba Narodov* in 1987, when the decision was finally made to publish the novel. The book had languished unpublished for more than twenty years and became a symbol of the beginning of a new era in Russian history. It instantly sold over 10 million copies, was translated into most European languages, and published in 52 countries.