About the book: 2017 / Hot summer of 1942. The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad depended not only on those who fought on the banks of the Volga. To the south, German motorized units advanced almost without resistance towards Astrakhan. The fate of the entire war hung in the balance... The breakthrough was stopped by the legendary 34th Guards Division, formed from fighters and commanders of the airborne corps. In the waterless steppes of the Volga region, paratroopers, trained for lightning operations behind enemy lines, with virtually no artillery and no air support, were forced to conduct bloody defensive battles against selected Wehrmacht units. Based on real events, the story of courage and selfless soldierly friendship of two Red Army soldiers, a veteran sergeant and a recruit corporal, an exciting military thriller about the combat operations of the guards paratroopers.