The Second World War, and, what is closer to us, the Great Patriotic War, as its component, will forever remain one of the key, if not the key event in the history of mankind. Never before has a war taken so many lives and threatened so many peoples with destruction. Realizing its full significance, a whole system of speculation, myths and outright falsifications is built around it. This book is an attempt to resist them, to dispel the established misconceptions of Russian society, and to consolidate in memory the great feat of our country, the Russian and other peoples of the USSR.