About the book: 2021 / These two commanders opposed each other in the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War - the best strategist of the Third Reich, Erich von Manstein and one of the leading Soviet military leaders Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin. Their duels were always sharp and dramatic, because they were fought by commanders of equal military talent with very similar views on the methods and methods of conducting operations. A new joint book by Ust-Kamenogorsk authors I.Yu. Dodonov and V.V. Smirnova, being the first in the series, talks about the biographies of Soviet and German commanders before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Consideration of the stages of life of N.F. Vatutin and E. Manshten is conducted against the backdrop of historical events of that turbulent era, which will certainly make it possible to better understand the conditions in which these two men formed as military leaders. So, “Vatutin vs. Manstein. Duel of commanders. Book one. Before the collision».