The new book by a famous Russian historian tells about one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War - the battle for the Caucasus, which lasted from July 1942 to October 1943. The main attention is paid to the problems of strategy, the possibility of implementing alternative scenarios, the problem of military losses and the effectiveness of the parties' actions. The author focuses on stories that were reflected in the Soviet and Russian public consciousness - the ascents of German and Soviet military climbers to Elbrus and the defense of the Malaya Zemlya bridgehead near Novorossiysk.