If fate cast you into another world, be careful—because no one has canceled differences in mentality. Another world is even worse than emigration. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Progress after the development of technology becomes not only a blessing, but also a curse—drawing the attention of the powerful.
And on your feet, chains have already been placed—your beloved wife, with a nursing baby. Around you is war that historians will later call the World War. Realizing that progress is possible only on the basis of real, existing technologies and the skills of local specialists, Savva Kobchik not only patents things “from the future,” but also surrounds himself with enthusiasts who have enough energy to be “trained” with tried-and-true ideas and diverted from dead-end solutions—while the rest they can do themselves.
By creating the first machine gun in this world on an automatic principle, Savva becomes a baron—though not one accepted by the local aristocracy, for whom he is a novice, a parvenu, and a new rich. And once he gets into the very den of political intrigues, the only place where he finds salvation is at the front—the very forefront. In an armored train constructed by himself.