Since its inception in 2000, Biogerontology has published interviews with some of the most renowned and intellectually influential biogerontologists, including Len Hayflick, Robin Holliday, Denham Harman, Vincent Cristofalo, Claudio Franceschi, Leslie Robert, Ken Kitani, Geroge Martin, Zhores Medvedev and John Maynard Smith. These interviews have explored the minds of these scientists in all aspects of their lives combining the private and the professional. Together, this series is a remarkable document providing an insight into the history of ideas in modern biogerontology. Here we present Vladimir Khavinson talking about his life and work in Russia during and after the Soviet times, his ideas on stress and health, his discoveries of the healthy ageing promoting small peptides, and other anti-ageing interventions.