these were the architects , restorers, boris kabeltsyn, all right smernov, who revived churches and monasteriestroyed during the war, archaeologist grozdilov, who looked for birch bark letters in pskov, geichenko, an amazing wizard, sorcerer who revived pushkinskoe nest in mikhailovskoye, tvoragov, silver head, collector of ancient books and libraries. these were people with amazing bright russian energy, they inspired life, they made pskov a delightful, luminous city, where they aspired... the most eminent and bright people of that time, writers, artists, thinkers, all aspired to pskov, as today they aspire to athos , perhaps pskov is the russian athos, lev nikolaevich gumilyov, anna andreevna akhmatova appeared here, poems were written here, amazing religious doctrines were formed, philosophical treatises, i’m so lucky that i’m still a young man. was accepted into their circle, into their sacred brotherhood, and then over the years i saw how this brotherhood thinned out, how the light quietly went out, and my friends left one after another, as if boarding a boat sailing away, disappearing int