The Red Cross is two intersecting stories, one of which began in the last century and ends now, with the death of its heroine. And the other heroine lived now and has already died, but her story continues, just without her. Yes, in fact, the first story continues too... The novel touches on the topic of Stalinist repressions, the Great Patriotic War, the attitude towards the wives and children of “enemies of the people.” Sasha Filipenko talked about what was not allowed to be talked about in the Soviet Union. The novel presents copies of letters sent to the NKID by the Red Cross Committee, as well as the NKID’s refusals to respond to these letters. These documents help to better understand the position of the USSR government in relation to captured Soviet soldiers. The novel also contains a shocking, borderline believable, story of a young hero; and a plot compressed like a spring; and the cinematic transition of times; and a paradoxical ending.