This book is about a young man who heroically defended the Brest Fortress. He was not on the lists and had no experience of warfare whatsoever. Young, full of hopes and plans, he did not even notice how he was caught in the whirlpool of war, from which there was no way back. This is a very piercing book. It is about those who defended their Motherland, who gave peace to the next generations, who spared neither themselves nor the enemy.
It is noteworthy that the heroes of Boris Vasilyev’s works are ordinary people, with strengths and weaknesses. Kolya Pluzhnikov is one of them. He had only just graduated from military school and found himself face to face with war, one on one. The young man did not retreat; he learned as he went, and he managed to become a true defender. He was supported by faith in the best and the desire to save others.
Despite the heat of battle and the deep tragedy of the situation, there is also a love story in this work. That feeling was doomed, yet it broke through, as a green shoot sometimes breaks through stony soil, where it is clear in advance that it will not grow and will be burned by the sun.
War is always cruel and unnatural. It is precisely this that every line of Boris Vasilyev’s book sounds out so desperately and sharply…