Unknown. Everyone knows about them, no one knows them

Anonymouss remain for various reasons: one is afraid of exposure, the other wants to tear himself away from his own biography and remain in reader"s memory only with texts, the third is in secret service, the fourth wants to equal to God, whose presence is undoubtedly for many, but the appearance is incomprehensible.
The great unknown, which are described in this book, represent different types of anonymity: these are non -dummy criminals like Jack -Room, the alleged representatives of the special services - such are a person from Somerton, unidentified victims of the villains, like a woman from the Valley, unknown, unknown geniuses like The creator of the main ancient Russian poem and modern myth -making, as the street artist Banksy. Endowing anonymous people with our beloved, then hated features, we often show a more acute interest in them than in the most scandalous historical characters.
Dmitry Bykov compiled a collection, he is also the author of the preface and part of the essays, the rest of the essays were written by students of the seminar D. Bykov at a free university.

The search for real authors of the Shakespearean canon or the best Soviet novel is akin to the search for God - and therefore not a single answer will suit anyone. In the same way, not a single real person, substituted at the place of the iron mask or the author of the "Word of Igor"s Regiment", will be recognized as well -established what arguments no ... anonymous is attractive not only because any secret entails humanity and annoyingly requires as disclosure, and eternal doubt (the world without secrets would cease to inspire a person with religious feelings and would lose all the poetry) The anonymous is also beautiful because it allows you to substitute for its favorite ... And this secret, including many possible solutions, undoubtedly, miles of one single truth.
Dmitry Bykov
The compilation and preface of Dmitry Bykov