About the book: 2001 / Dozens of books have been published about the first months of the 1941 war in the Baltic. Their authors and admirals who commanded the fleet, its formations, and officers who commanded ships or combat units of ships. The description and analysis of the events described by him, of course, are presented on the basis of their current positions, ranks and many years of service and life experience. This book differs from all previous ones in that it was written by a former Red Navy man who, as a 16-year-old boy, a week before the start of the war, ran away from home to Leningrad, where the war found him. Thanks to the fact that he studied in the 9th grade of the Naval Special Secondary School in Moscow and wore a uniform not much different from the Red Navy, he joined the group of Red Navy vacationers and, having added 3 years to himself and calling himself a signalman, was sent as a signalman to an icebreaker with an Estonian crew. The peculiarity of the book is its documentary nature, because the basis of it - diary entries that the author kept from grades 5-6 and almost throughout the war. Another feature is the description of small-scale events in everyday life, work, service, the surrounding Red Navy comrades, foremen and some commanders in various situations in which the ship and its crew found themselves; everything seen, done or experienced is not varnished, but is presented as it happened at that time, and the above assessment of these events was given by the author 60 years ago. It is also of interest that it shows the activity not of a warship, but of an icebreaker, which in itself is now a historical value and a museum exhibit. and very little is known about his activities in the first months of the war. Of undoubted interest for historians who studied life in besieged Leningrad are the scrupulous descriptions of the blockade nutrition of the sailors of this ship, which was also assigned to the rear units. The author does not give the number of grams of food per person per day, but how much food he received from the galley in its natural form - the number of table spoons of the first and second courses, their qualitative description.