Poetry was a recurring theme in the Kostrovitski Family, The Family of The Cross, of which the Belarusian social and political activist, poet and artist Karuś Kahaniets and Guillaume Apollinaire, poet, art critic and forefather of Surrealism were notable members. This anthology of poems by Kahaniets and other Kostrovitski relatives, with factual biographical material, evokes powerful images of the times in which they lived.