About the book: 2015 / Isai Kuznetsov (1916–2010) – prose writer, playwright, author of film scripts “Property of the Republic”, “Moscow – Cassiopeia”, “Youths in the Universe”, “The Lost Expedition”, created in collaboration with Abner Zak, as well as “Golden River”, “The Rape of Savoy”, the novels “Staircases” and “Everyone is Gone”. The book “Once Upon a Time at War” by I. Kuznetsov compiled his war stories and memories in the last years of his life. In 1941, he went to the front and served as a sergeant in pontoon units, with which he reached Dresden. These stories are not about battles and battles, they are about people at war. The collection also includes his memoirs “Before and After” - about pre- and post-war youth, about friends - Zinovy ​​​​Gerdt, Alexander Galich, Boris Slutsky, Mikhail Lvovsky, Vsevolod Bagritsky, David Samoilov.