About the book: 1976 / Vasily Lebedev’s working life began very early. He worked as a loader, nailer, and cook. After graduating from university, he taught Russian language and literature at school. In 1969, the first book of stories and short stories by Vasily Lebedev, “The Flower of Poppies,” was published. The book was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize. Later, the books “High Field”, “Living Life”, “Hippocrates Called Him” and others appeared. The story “Doomed Will” is a new word in the writer’s work, his first appeal to a historical topic. The story tells about Kondraty Bulavin, the leader of the uprising on the Don at the beginning of the 18th century. The goal of the uprising was the struggle for the will of the Wild Field, but this movement grew into a struggle for the freedom of all the oppressed who fled to the Don from monstrous exploitation. The action in the story develops along two storylines. One is the life of the Bulavin freemen, that is, the Cossacks, Cossacks, rebel Bashkirs, the other is the royal court in the person of Peter I and his entourage. The tragic outcome of the uprising was most clearly reflected in the dramatic fate of Bulavin himself and his family.