Mannerheim's line... For many years, for us, this combination was like the crest of a fairy-tale elodea, from which impenetrable forests grew and mountain peaks rose on the hero's path. The figure of the Swedish baron, the creator of a powerful system of fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus, where so much blood of Soviet soldiers was shed during the notorious Winter War (1939–1940), was drawn even more mysterious and ominous. The author of the book, Professor Leonid Vasilyevich Vlasov, based on numerous documents convincingly proves that Marshal and President of Finland Carl Gustav Mannerheim (1867–1951) is not one of the great villains and belongs not only to Finnish history. A brilliant officer who faithfully served the Russian Empire for thirty years, he left an indelible mark on the military past of the Russian army. Paradoxically, while fighting with the Soviet Union, he was not an enemy of Russia.