Pushkin studies in the soviet period developed a radical positivist, vulgar sociological ("klassovyi") approach to understanding and interpretation of Pushkin"s works, and created many myths to accommodate them to the communist ideology. Among these myths are: "friend of the Decembrists", enemy of "tsarism", radical liberal, paganist, hardened atheist, admirer of Pugachev, and more. This book shows how these and other myths were created. Viktor Esipov (b. 1939) is a poet and historian of literature, and author of several works about Pushkin, Akhmatova, etc.