Vanka-sergeant

“Vanka-Rotny” is a sincere story about the difficult military everyday life of a rifle officer of the Great Patriotic War. Giving about the hardships that the millions of Red Army soldiers at the front from August 1941 to April 1944 comprehended, the author displayed events with striking naturalism. This edition presents a fragment of the manuscript of Alexander Shumilin, covering the period of the author’s participation in both Rzhev-Vyazemsky operations. For the truth of the author, in particular, for his criticizing the role and place of the higher command, the book refused to print for a long time, but it was this genuine honesty that allows us to say that these memoirs are the true story of the hero of the war