About the book: year / The book is not just based on real events, in some chapters, scenes of combat are described with detailed, minute-by-minute accuracy. There is also a lot of obscene language in the dialogues, but this, again, is just an accurate reproduction of the dialogues of the characters that took place in real life. In the army they don't swear; in the army they use swear words. The main character is Major Alexander Simonov, also known as Shurik, a collective image based on several real prototypes. But he is not the main one in this book, the main characters are minor characters who fight shoulder to shoulder with Shurik, they are based on real-life soldiers and officers of the Russian army who are or were in the Northern Military District zone.