Svitlana Alexievich's book "Zinc Boys" is dedicated to the war in Afghanistan, when our Soviet soldiers died on foreign soil for ten years - from 1979 to 1989. The truth about that war was carefully hidden: the state, through mass media, spread propaganda about the necessity and success of "providing international financial aid to the friendly people of Afghanistan." As a result, the Afghan war remained unknown to the common man for a long time, outwardly smooth, and most importantly, almost bloodless. Newspapers published articles about the successful military operations of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, where there were almost no casualties among our contingent, and the enemy's losses, on the contrary, were significantly higher... But more and more often, dead boys who had recently graduated from school were brought home in homes lined with zinc sheet ... It was not allowed to look inside the coffin, the funeral was not advertised, and the relatives were not even informed of the true cause of death of their children... And those who returned alive could not find themselves in a peaceful life. It is as if this war did not happen. There were only crippled and dead boys... And not only in body, but also in soul.