Memoirs of Army General S.M. Shtemenko tell about the work of the Soviet General Staff during the Great Patriotic War. The pages of the first book reveal the role of the Headquarters, the General Staff and the front command in developing plans to expel the enemy from the territory of the USSR. Considering strategic operations, the author pays due attention to those who were with him in those harsh years. Of particular interest are the chapters on the Tehran meeting of 1943 and the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in 1945.