The Cloud Regiment

Writing about the Great Patriotic War today isn’t easy. There’s already been so much written and told, and almost no one remains who remembers it. Writing for teenagers is doubly difficult. It seems like the modern young generation is interested in completely other things… But it turns out — no! именно teenagers gave this book first place in the All-Russian contest for the best literary work for children and youth “Kniguru.”

Precisely among them, this piercing novella found the most vivid response. Complex and ambiguous, sometimes it turns the soul inside out — but it also makes you feel and understand better what happened.

Here is Dimka, who lost his family in the first days of the war, took up arms, and dreams of opening an account of killed fascists. Here is the bold Sanich, bewitched by a gypsy so as not to be hit by a bullet or a photo frame; a talker and a fighter from God, who fears only betrayal, a heel-stepping bully from the old woman’s fairy tales, and the strict girl Alevtina. And here is Kovalyots — he’s a dandy; he carefully smooths his hair with a comb — but he is also a brave and desperate soldier. Or Shurik, nicknamed Shchuriy, dreaming at last of getting his first pistol…

The twentieth century closed the doors behind it, taking away millions of lives carried off by thousands of wars. But through the gunpowder smoke, we can see Sanych, and Kovalets, and Alka, and many others.

Who are they? It’s hard to say. One thing is clear: all of them are a “cloud regiment.”

“Cloud Regiment” is a modern book about war and its heroes, about duty — and, of course, about the courage to live. The book is written according to the canons of domestic youth prose, but sometimes it boldly steps beyond these canons.