  E. B. Gliner started his scientific career in 1963 at the age of 40. In 1965,
when the existence of the cosmological constant $\lambda$ seemed unnecessary to
most cosmologists, he renewed interest in the problem by emphasizing a material
interpretation of de Sitter space (i.e., the space curved in the presence of
$\lambda$). According to that interpretation, the curvature is produced by a
cosmological vacuum (now identified as dark energy of the universe). In 1970,
Gliner proposed a description of exponential expansion (or contraction) of the
universe at the early (or late) evolution stage dominated by cosmological
vacuum. In 1975, Gliner (with I.G. Dyminikova) suggested a model of the early
universe free of Big Bang singularity, and developed a scenario of nonsingular
Friedmann cosmology. Many of these findings were used in the modern inflation
scenarios of the universe, first proposed by A.A. Starobinsky (1979) and A.
Guth (1981) and greatly multiplied later. However, these inflation scenarios
differ from the scenario of Gliner and Dymnikova, and Gliner's contribution to
cosmology is nearly forgotten. The history and the essence of this contribution
are outlined, as well the difference from the inflation theories.
