Even though there was no front line in Afghanistan, no “correct”, “trench” war, but “trench truth” - here it is, in this combat diary of an infantry lieutenant. The truth about serving in a “warring”, “raiding” battalion, about combat exits and airborne assaults, conducting columns, blocking and combing villages, ambushes, mine and land mine explosions, pursuing “spirits” and multi-day hikes in the mountains, where “even donkeys “They can’t stand it, they lie down on their belly and expire, but the Soviet soldier overcomes any difficulties.” The truth about mass heroism and the unsightly underbelly of war - about the awarding of rear service personnel more often than military officers, about the unforgivable mistakes of senior commanders and heavy losses, about the escort of “cargo 200” to their homeland in unsealed worm-eaten coffins and unbearable funerals when “even vodka won’t take you.” The whole truth about the last, heroic and bloody war of the USSR...