The main character of the work is a young sapper officer performing mine clearance tasks in Chechnya, in Grozny, after its second assault. As he carries out daily combat missions, he realizes that many things actually have a completely different meaning. The matrix of life in which it seemed that everything was settled and unshakable, and with which he, in general, like all other people, enveloped his life, is breaking down. Those prejudices that were already firmly ingrained in his life suddenly became invisible, and actions and thoughts were reduced to the simplest patterns and reactions. With an attempt to reveal the psychology of the refraction of the perception of life “in” and “outside” the war, human relationships and experiences in conditions of constant stress and risk to life, and the nature of the relationship between man and man, man and the Motherland... The Army and the State.