This is the fifth year of the Afghan campaign, the period of the most active hostilities. The second motorized rifle battalion, which left Termez, crossed the state border and began to carry out its combat mission: the unit must take control of the Panjshir Gorge... Yuri Meshcheryakov, a career officer, created a deep, serious work in which he tried to philosophically comprehend the theme of war and the people in it, to explore the state of the soul experiencing severe shocks. The author is a gifted and sensitive person. His language is bright, his descriptions are visible, and his judgments are hard-won. He talks about the war directly and harshly, the book, like front-line life itself, is filled with dramatic scenes, heroism, humanism and of course love...