I have been asked, more than once, where the Tarkovsky family comes from. To begin, I must present two versions: a Polish one and a Caucasian one. The Caucasian one is a myth—a provocation, a farce! It arose because in the Caucasus there is a mountain called Tarkitau and a village called Tarki (in today's Republic of Dagestan), about which the poet Aleksandr Polezhaev wrote, having been exiled there. Polezhaev was a military serviceman who, despite the ranks he obtained, repeatedly abandoned the Tsar's army and was subsequently flogged; he died in 1838, at the age of 33–34. At some point, someone came to our grandfather on our father's side, Aleksandr Karlovich Tarkovsky, and told him that he ought to inherit the herds and silver mines in the Caucasus—simply because of the similarity of names. Our grandfather refused the proposal. Was this the scheme of a conspiracy, a plan to rob him?!