Boris Vasiliev went to the front at seventeen, like thousands of other young men and women who, that year, stood in line at the military registration offices. And Boris Lvovich wrote precisely about them—the ones who fought shoulder to shoulder with him, just as young as he was at the start of the war.
Like the author, Nikolai Pluzhnikov grows up rapidly—losing comrades, watering the land he calls his own with blood. And by the will of the author, he goes into immortality. Readers confirmed it: Nikolai Pluzhnikov stepped into immortality. Majestic and dramatic, the novel became a classic of Russian literature.