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Foreword -- The beginning -- The time of peace is over -- My mother’s story -- My father’s story -- In Sverdlovsk -- Back to Leningrad -- Crime without punishment -- Even the sun has spots -- It is so difficult to become an “A” student -- The importance of being an “A” student -- Slingshots -- Illnesses -- “Physcult” and sports -- A sharp kid -- Foreign languages -- My interests -- Poetry -- Fimka -- The first place in the District! -- The indecent topic -- My circle of reading -- I chose mathematics -- A circle at the Palace of Pioneers -- Two lectures for the school teachers -- The English teacher -- Arkady Alexeev -- Alexeev’s story -- Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.-You cannot live without the women. No! -- The first Mathmech year -- Student contests -- We lead our life in major key -- A mysterious ID -- Musical moments -- Valery Maisky -- The authorities did not like me -- How did I not become a dissident -- Misha Danilov -- Fractional derivatives -- Student Scientific Society (SSS) and Tseitin -- “Quasi-publication” and S. M. Lozinsky -- The Mathmech choir -- My doubts and S. G. Mikhlin’s advice -- A few words about Mikhlin The virgin soil -- Bakelman’s special course -- Job placement -- Siegfried -- Steel sheets and YMS -- Possibility and reality -- Defense at the Moscow State University -- Defense at the Leningrad University -- About V.I. Smirnov -- An order: scatter the composed type -- About the “Big Seminar” -- After the defense of the Doctor’s degree dissertation -- Non-travels to foreign countries -- Counterexamples to the Hilbert problem -- Talent -- Farewell, my young years! -- Under close surveillance?.

Vladimir Maz'ya (born 1937) is an outstanding mathematician who systematically made fundamental contributions to a wide array of areas in mathematical analysis and in the theory of partial differential equations. In this fascinating book he describes the first thirty years of his life in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He starts with the story of his family, speaks about his childhood, the high school and university years, and recalls his formative years as a mathematician. Behind the author's personal recollections, with his own joys, sorrows and hopes, one sees a vivid picture of those times in the former Sovjet Union. He speaks warmly about his friends, both outside and inside the world of mathematics, about discovering his passion for mathematics and his early achievements, and about a number of mathematicians who influenced his professional life. The book is written in a highly readable and inviting style, spiced with the occasional touch of humor.