The famous book by a popular historian, already recognized as a classic of the genre. A poignant story about one of the most terrible disasters of the Great Patriotic War. Chronicle of the Baltic tragedy of August 1941, when our ships and ships with refugees, under the attacks of German aircraft, at the cost of monstrous losses, broke through the minefields of the Gulf of Riga and the bay screamed with human voices... But at first nothing foreshadowed the disaster. Soviet troops detained the Germans near Tallinn for two months; all enemy attempts to break through to the harbor and throw the defenders into the sea failed. Despite the continuous shelling and bombing, our command managed to carry out a large-scale operation to evacuate the main base of the Baltic Fleet in the shortest possible time and with acceptable losses - only one large transport was sunk, and the warships were not seriously damaged. Tens of thousands of people who boarded the transport ships were confident that they had been saved, that the worst was over. But this was only the beginning of the agony...