Shortly before his death, G.K. Zhukov said: “The history of the Great Patriotic War is absolutely implausible. This is not a story that happened, but a story that was written. Who should be glorified, who should be kept silent about..." One of these half-forgotten tragedies, about which both Soviet propaganda and the Marshal of Victory himself preferred to remain silent, was the death in the spring of 1942 in the “cauldron” near Vyazma of the 33rd Army of General Efremov. The culprit of this disaster is now increasingly called Zhukov, who first insisted on a risky operation, then objected to the timely withdrawal of the army from encirclement, and after the defeat, blamed it all on the army commander, with whom Georgy Konstantinovich had, to put it mildly, strained relations. Are the accusations justified? Zhukov's address? What are the real causes of the disaster? And could it have been avoided? You will find the answers to all these questions in this book, the author of which for many years, literally bit by bit, collected any available information, archival materials and eyewitness accounts in order to restore in detail, day and minute, the true history of the feat and tragedy of the 33rd Army.