The author of the book, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Slukin, was born in Sverdlovsk on February 11, 1936. A geophysicist engineer, Slukin taught for many years at the Ural Academy of Architecture and Art, headed the Society of Ural Local Lore for more than 30 years, published about 15 books, more than 350 scientific papers, and over 100 non-fiction articles in federal and regional periodicals.

The list of his titles and awards is quite long: Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, member of the European Scientific Society (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), member of the Presidium of the Sverdlovsk branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, member of the Expert Council of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region on the protection of architectural monuments, and Chairman of the Expert Council of the Sverdlovsk branch of Russian Cultural Foundation.

Vsevolod Slukin was the scientific editor of two collections of works of the Ural State Academy of Arts, compiler, and editor of issues of the literary and local history almanac “Ural Antiquity”, laureate of “The Ural Pathfinder” magazine in 1990. For the preparation of the Yekaterinburg encyclopedia, he was awarded the Tatishchev and de Gennin Prize in 2003. He initiated the scientific and practical conference “Tatishchev Readings”. For his local history work he was awarded a medal named after N.K. Chupin.

Slukin studied historical and cultural heritage for several decades using modern engineering technologies. In the 1970s–1990s, he led scientific expeditions to study the architectural and construction heritage in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Verkhoturye, as well as in Rostov, Novgorod, Vologda, and Tula.

Slukin carried out a huge amount of work in Nevyansk. From 1977 to 1982, studies of underground structures were carried out on the territory of the mechanical plant within the historical zone. In 1990–1992 Slukin examined the general technical condition of the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, the buildings of the factory blast furnaces and the mechanical workshop using non-destructive methods.

In 1999–2002, he conducted detailed studies of soils in the historical territory (near the Leaning Tower), as well as studies of the technical condition of structures and building units of the tower and prepared recommendations for the following restoration work.

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Slukin published the results of his research in the book called “Secrets of the Ural Dungeons”. It describes the search for ancient Demidov dungeons and contains a diagram of the supposed underground passages in the historical territory of Nevyansk.