The essay covers an entire era of our country - from the beginning of the twentieth century to almost its end. The history of Russia through the prism of difficult human destinies: “Grandfathers” is the family story of the “Black Cat catcher” Timofey Aleksandrovich Sivak (1907–1994) and his wife Zinaida Andreevna Tarkhova (1911–1998), who had to go through many hardships of the Soviet regime and At the same time, preserve not only human dignity, but also the strongest love for each other. Natalya Rubanova, the granddaughter of the “boss”—that’s what Sivak was called by criminals who invariably respected him for his professional ethics—wrote an essay based on the diary of her grandfather, once the head of the Ryazan criminal investigation department. I wrote it in such a way that it is simply impossible not to believe in the existence of such a feeling as love.