“In recent days, the exercises on the ground of the Twenty-third separate rifle assault battalion have become especially intense. The entire battalion moved to the steppe about ten kilometers from the city of Stalino, lived in tents on the bank of the headquarters, overgrown with reeds and water lilies, wake up at six, lights out at eleven, feeding was not so great, but everyone was running, everyone was running, so that the people, having barely reached to the beds, fell on them and fell asleep in a dead sleep, some without even taking off their boots. Battalion commander Levakov himself followed the exercises, he set tasks himself, based on guidelines known only to him, company rabble-rousers, platoon commanders tore their throats, urging the attack aircraft, and they called themselves noisemakers, curling their lips in a poisonous grin...”