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This is a translated autobiography of applied mathematician N. N. Moiseev, providing an insider's view of the history of the Soviet Union from its founding in 1917 to its collapse in 1991, as well as a little of the aftermath.

We see vividly the precariousness of life just after the October Revolution; his happy family life during the years 1921-28 of Lenin's New Economic Policy; the subsequent destruction of his family by Stalin's regime; his trials as a social outcast; his student days at Moscow State University; his experiences as a Soviet Air Force Engineer in World War II, including sorties as a gunner and a brush with an NKVD agent; post-war euphoria, marriage, and another round of ostracism; and then the vicissitudes of a highly varied academic career. Here we meet many famous Soviet and Western engineers and scientists. The last several chapters are devoted more to wide-ranging reflections on God, philosophy, science, communism, modelling the biosphere, and the threat ofnuclear winter. His thoughts concerning the impending and then final collapse of the USSR, as well as hopes for Russia's future, conclude the journey through Moiseev's life.