For the first time in Russian! Translation of the famous war novel, based on which the cult film was made. An undisputed classic of the genre. 1943, Eastern Front. A new commander, the brave captain-staff officer von Shtranski, has been appointed to the company of non-commissioned officer Steiner. Soon Steiner, an honored veteran, a true war hero and “father to soldiers”, who has gone through all the circles of front-line hell and is ready to give his life for any of his subordinates, realizes with horror that Shtranski is a Heimatkrieger (rear rat) and an Eiserner Kreuz-Geier (hunter for regalia), who desperately needs the Iron Cross for a successful career, and that for the sake of this award the captain is ready to do any meanness, any losses, if necessary - to kill at least his entire company... In the West, this book became the main military-historical bestseller and the basis of the bloody action movie of the same name , which, having appeared in the USSR on underground videotapes, created a real sensation among Soviet viewers who saw the Great Patriotic War through the eyes of the Germans for the first time.