The novella “Girls and Ladies” is a searing work—bare truth about war.
It tells how, in 1941 near Moscow, mobilized women dug trenches—this is the second prosaic work by the writer. The novella was written in October 1968, wandered for a long time through various Soviet journals, and even set in type in December 1971—but, right away and for unknown reasons, the typesetting was thrown into disarray.
“Girls and Ladies” was first printed in the journal “Grani” (No. 94, 1974).