This collection includes two masterpieces of military prose by Vasil Bykov - “Sotnikov” and “Obelisk”. “Sotnikov” is a stunning story in its almost documentary simplicity of two captured partisans. This is a discussion about heroism and betrayal, death and life, a story about courage, honor and fidelity to duty. The hero of “Obelisk,” the rural teacher Moroz, is a “man without skin,” acutely aware of any injustice and perceiving the troubles of his neighbors as his own. And it is precisely this decency of his that the police decide to take advantage of when they take hostage children - students of a teacher who has joined the partisans...