Universal History Annotation << Back The History of the Creation of the Institute of Applied Astronomy of RAS From the A.M. Finkelstein’s archive Andrey Mikhailovich Finkelstein (1942–2011) – Doctor of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, one of founders and the first director of IAA RAS. Throughout his life he wrote a book of memoirs, philosophical reflections about science upon the whole and astronomy in particular, about people of science and about life in general. Unfortunately, this book was never completed; was not published anywhere. With the authorized permission of Mrs. A.M. Morozova, A.M. Finkelstein’s widow, here in this collection we quote abstracts from that book, which emotionally describes the process of the «Quasar Quo» emergence in the first person; on behalf of the man who breathed life into this project, and whose life was dedicated to it completely, without anything left in reserve. Keywords: astronomical project; conceptual design; radio astronomy; very long baseline interferometry. Contacts: - Pp. 42-50.