You are holding an autobiographical novel by Ostrovsky, divided into several parts. Each contains nine chapters: childhood, adolescence, and youth; after that, mature years and illness. For an unworthy act a schoolboy committed, Pavka Korchagin was simply expelled. After that, he gets “among people.” At the time when, in the small town where he lived, news arrived that “the Tsar had been overthrown,” he had no time for studies—he works hard and boyishly, hiding a weapon despite prohibitions from his bosses, while the unexpectedly arrived German occupation covers everything. And when the province is flooded with Petliura bands, he, against his will, sees an enormous number of Jewish pogroms and brutal killings. His anger and indignation constantly seize his young heart, and he decides to help the sailor Zhurhay…