The rejection of tyranny is the founding myth of democracy. Tyranny is the arbitrary power of a single man, driven by his impulses and his temptation to enslave others, by practicing an unjust policy.

The October Revolution in Russia officially plunged the world into the totalitarian era. It was preceded by an intense political, social, and ideological struggle, spearheaded by terrorism. A "witness to history", imagined by a Russian novelist, revealed the psychology of the young activists who sacrificed themselves to establish a dream of freedom that ended in nightmare. Is it a coincidence that the novel was subtitled "the book of endings"?