The book summed up the results of A.’s work on the history of the Qumran community; and it was built as an encyclopedic research. It is started with the history of the findings (chapter 1) and the description of the excavated settlements of Qumran (chapter 2). Then, there is an survey of the library of the Qumran community (chapter 3) and the life of the settlements how it can be restored on the base of the texts (chapter 4). The author discusses the aspects of economical activity, social relations of the community, its organization and inner structures: self-names, composition, administration, the way of accepting new members, disciplinary Rule, calendar, sacrifices, ritual washings, communal dinners, marriage. A separate part of the book is centered at the ideology of the community and the personality of its founder – the Teacher of Righteousness. The chapter 5 is dedicated to the issue of identification of the Qumran community with Essenes; and the chapter 6 takes an issue, painful for the Soviet context – the Qumran influence at the Early Christianity. The author warned both against the exuberant ‘pan-Qumranism’, and against the attempts to separate the Qumran community from the Early Christian movement.

The book by A. was a window to the world of Qumran studies, and – in a broader sense – to the studies of Judaism opened for the Soviet reader, whose possibility to take part in the free exchange of ideas and publications was limited. The book gave no only information on the subject of the research, but also on the non-ideological methods of religious studies.