Maxim Arturovitch Pyatnitski, born in 1900 in Kiev, recounts his early years during the revolutionary period of Russian history. He exalts the purity and grandeur of the Slavic soul; rails against modern Christianity which to him is a Judaic corruption of the rational form founded by the Greeks; and, while bemoaning the effete spirit of the modern age, believes still that Byzantium, the seat of true Christianity, endures in his heart. This is a steady tale of moral and ideological ironies, written in a sure hand that lovingly describes a bygone era. --Sugunan at Amazon.com.