About the book: 2007 / A simple Russian man. A real commander. War hero. All these words are not said about different people. These words are about a Man with a capital M, about the famous tank general, later marshal, Mikhail Efimovich Katukov. The 4th Tank Brigade, headed by him, later became the core of the famous 1st Guards Tank Army, which became famous in the battles near Moscow, on the Kursk Bulge, on Ukraine, Poland and, finally, on the territory of Germany itself. Katukov's tank crews crushed the enemy troops of generals Guderian, Manstein and Hoth, completing their glorious journey in the very heart of the Third Reich - near Berlin. The book by Viktor Prudnikov is a study of the life and work of this prominent Soviet military leader and shows the influence of such an extraordinary personality on the course of history.