A serious tragedy happened to Sergei Yesenin. This poet turned out to be privatized first by the thieves, then by the pochvenniks, that is, by the worst of Russian readers. Although he is, of course, the most gifted writer of his generation, a brilliant avant-garde artist who is an example of a clear and sad disintegration of personality: until the 22nd year - a great poet, from the 22nd to the 25th - a poet living the last crumbs of his talent, turning into a heavy, neglected, unkempt alcoholic. In this lecture, Dmitry Bykov set himself the task of “Returning Yesenin the glory of a true Russian classic.”