The book by the famous military historian I. B. Moshchansky is dedicated to three rather dramatic episodes of the Second World War: the defense of the city of Odessa in the fall of 1941, the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 and the assault on Budapest, the capital of the last Nazi ally in Europe. All three chapters are presented labor are associated with the history of surrounded and blockaded cities, which, by the will of fate, became the arena of uncompromising struggle between the warring parties. And if at the beginning of the war our cities were cut off from the main country, then, starting from 1943, the Germans had to declare many settlements as fortresses and defend them with all their might. The chronicle of such battles was full of heroic and tragic examples of human courage.