About the book: 2023 / The novel is based on the real fate of a Red Army soldier. Fascist tanks are moving through the hot Trans-Don steppes towards Stalingrad. There are practically no regular military units on their way. There are only scattered units without artillery and ammunition, without food and without water. The Germans sweep them away one by one, but still, each short skirmish slows down the pace of advance of the invaders. Red Army soldier Pavel Nikolaevich Smolin found himself in the whirlpool of death and pain of millions of people. A modest young man, drafted into the army from provincial Samara, is trying to honestly fulfill his duty. Will Paul be able to survive the bloody battle? Where heavy shells and mines are constantly exploding, where enemy planes and tanks are constantly attacking, where the fate of Stalingrad and our entire Motherland is being decided?