In the Heart of War

Exceptional in their truthfulness novels about the Great Patriotic War. The thunder of distant blasts, the smell of gunpowder, the clanking of tank tracks—those terrifying signs of war come alive anew on the pages of books written by the grandchildren of those who, back in far-off 1945, reached Berlin. The war caught eight-year-old Vitya Osokinin in his hometown of Mtsensk. The fascists entered the city and occupation began. Vitya’s mother died first. Then, one after another, his younger sisters also died. In the bitter winter, the Germans drove people out onto the streets, and their houses were dismantled into logs for dugouts. Vitya and his grandmother survived those brutal times with unfamiliar people. Soon our troops liberate the city. Vitya’s father returns—a political officer of the Red Army. Seeing what the Hitlerites did in his homeland, he takes his son with him into the active army. Vitya becomes “the son of the battalion.” Having experienced the fascists’ atrocities firsthand, the boy knows exactly what he must avenge the enemy for…