Hadji-Murat Magomedovich Muguev (1893–1968) was a poet, writer, playwright, and publicist whose life was as eventful as his works. He was born in North Ossetia to an Ossetian Cossack family. He served in the First World War as a cornet, fought on the Caucasian and Persian fronts, and after the October Revolution sided with the Bolsheviks. He worked in Soviet intelligence and served in the USSR consulate in Turkey.

During the Great Patriotic War, he voluntarily went to the front, but after being seriously wounded near Stalingrad, he lost his sight. Despite this, he continued his literary and social activities, creating works dedicated to the heroic destinies of Soviet intelligence officers.

This edition presents his novel "The Doll of Mrs. Bark," which tells the story of a secret operation of Soviet intelligence in Iran during the war. Colonel Digorsky, the book's protagonist, finds himself drawn into a series of dangerous adventures when a mission to identify enemy agents takes an unexpected turn. It all begins with a ghost hunt in an old mansion, but behind the mystical veil lie real conspiracies, deadly traps, and geopolitical intrigues.

Filled with spy secrets, a dynamic plot, and a wartime atmosphere, this novel takes the reader behind the scenes of secret operations, where intelligence becomes the art of survival and playing ahead.