The Star

The novella "Star" tells of the selfless feat of a group of reconnaissance officers; it stirred Soviet literature and brought the author worldwide fame.

As the division advanced, it plunged deep into the boundless forests, and the woods swallowed it.

What neither German tanks nor German aviation nor the savage bandit gangs operating here managed to do, these vast forest spaces—where roads were torn up by war and blurred by spring mud—were able to accomplish.

In the distant forest clearings, trucks loaded with ammunition and provisions got stuck. Medical buses bogged down in hamlets lost among the forests. On the banks of unnamed rivers, an artillery regiment scattered its guns after running out of fuel. With every hour, all of this catastrophically pulled farther and farther away from the infantry. Yet the infantry—one and only—kept moving forward, trimming rations and trembling over every cartridge. Then even it began to give way. Its push became weaker and more uncertain, and taking advantage of that, the Germans slipped out of the blow and hurried back to the west.

The enemy vanished.