The thing moves me to tears. Ravil Bikbaev managed to talk about his experience so sincerely, with such heartache, that it is impossible not to respond to what he captured. This is another look at the Afghan war, perhaps the most frank, aimed at the innocent victims, the executors of someone’s bad orders - at the soldiers, sometimes first-years, thrown almost immediately after being drafted to the front line, into the hostile, hot Afghan mountains. The author served in composition of the air assault brigade, and the paratroopers had the hardest... Bikbaev does not skimp on emotions, provides details of a varied nature, shows the specific way of thinking of desperate paratroopers. Overcoming the disorder of everyday life, the humiliation of hazing, taking part in combat operations, in ambushes, in raids , the hero-narrator matures, matures, becomes wiser, turns from a goofball into a father-commander, and takes responsibility for the lives of the guys of the platoon entrusted to him. A mature man, decades after leaving Afghanistan, the author admits: “Afghans! You managed to withstand the Soviet army, the best in the world... You cannot help but respect such a people...”