The book Екзод Тараса Шевченка was Leonid Pliushch's debut as a literary scholar and critic in 1986. Previously he completed his studies at the University of Kyiv with a degree in mathematics and worked at the Institute of Cybernetics. A critic of human rights abuses in the USSR, he was arrested by the KGB in 1972 and incarcerated in a psychiatric institution. Pressure from French mathematicians led to his release and expulsion from the USSR. His autobiography B карнaвалі історії (At the Carnival of History) was published in 1977 and has been translated into English, French, Italian and German. Його Таємниця або «прекрасна ложа» Xвильового is Pliushch's second book of literary criticism. He resides in France.