Moscow: Taus Publ., 2011, 104 p. The small volume of the book under review, the somewhat shocking title, and not one, but three, may well confuse the reader: usually such titles hide publications from the series "the secret of life and death", "witnesses of the afterlife" and the like, where the authors deliberately mislead the reader in order to better sell their book. In this case, this is not so: we are looking at a rigorous scientific study, thoroughly grounded, made by an archaeologist who studies the essence of the funeral rite and traditions that accompany the deceased during the transition from the world of the living to the world of the dead. I will not hide the fact that not only as a biased reader, but also as a fairly sophisticated archaeologist who has worked for more than 40 years in the history of the funeral rite, I am always alarmed by articles or books that offer another (1001st) way to discover the "mystery of life and death". How, has another author found out a great secret and is ready to tell it to us? This can't be happening... But Yu. A. Smirnov's book is not about this, although its title is made up of these words. The author offers us his version that this topic is "eternal", I will not be afraid of this word, in the history of mankind and that for its understanding there is another argument that the author expressed quite reasonably. The point is that the Apocalypse is a version of the Christian "Book of the Dead", similar to the Egyptian, Tibetan and other similar books. But this is not enough, there are still European versions of the "Book of the Dead" - these are fairy tales. Yes, the usual fairy tales, so familiar to us from childhood. I admit I've never read anything like this before. In a short review, it is not possible to analyze all the author's provisions in detail, and this is not necessary. I will focus on the main points that most interested me. To begin with, "first of all, the author, who is an absolute supporter of the syst ... Read more