“People mechanically move forward, and many die - but we no longer belong to ourselves, we are all captured by the incomprehensible wild element of battle. Explosions, shrapnel and bullets scattered the soldiers' chains, tearing the living and the dead into pieces. How can people endure this? How to protect yourself in this hell? The roar of the battle drowns out the desperate screams of the wounded, the orderlies, risking themselves, rush between the wall of heavy fire and these terrible screams; trying to save, they drag the crippled and bloodied into the nearest craters. In the hum and whistle of shells, we cease to recognize each other. Pale faces, compressed lips. Someone is crying as they walk, and tears, mixed with sweat and dirt, flow down their faces, blinding their eyes. Someone is trying to cross themselves while running, looking pleadingly at the sky. Someone is calling some Maruska...” This is how Boris Gorbachevsky, who had the chance to participate and survive in one of the bloodiest battles of the Great Patriotic War - the summer offensive near Rzhev, describes his first battle. For him, the war ended in Czechoslovakia, but it was the battles on the Kalinin Front that left the strongest mark on his memory.