This issue of the magazine includes:

• In Memoriam: Lev Ayzenshtat (1947–2004)

Lev Ayzenshtat was the founder of the magazine "The People of the Book in the World of Books," its first editor-in-chief, and its permanent contributor. Nearly every issue of the magazine included his articles, reviews, or interviews with writers and scholars. To connoisseurs of Russian literature he was also known as Lev Danovsky, a poet, and an author of two books of deep philosophical poetry. He passed away suddenly on the last days of 2004 from a heart attack... The magazine publishes recollections from his friends, reviews of his recently issued poetic book Relief, as well as a selection of his unpublished poems.

• Synopses: New Books about Dmitry Shostakovich

Brief reviews present two books about the life and works of the great composer, issued in 2004—the monograph Shostakovich and Stalin: Artist and Tsar by New York music scholar Solomon Volkov, published in Moscow; and the historical essay Jewish Dominant of Dmitry Shostakovich by the researcher and Jewish community activist Dmitry Tsvibel, published in Petrozavodsk.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: March–April 2005

• Bibliography: 25 New Books