The Gorky Line is one of the linear fortifications between the Yaik and the Irtysh that protected the southern borders of the Russian Empire from the mid-18th to the beginning of the 20th century from attacks by Asian nomads. The protection of such fortifications was traditionally entrusted to the Cossacks. And their life on the border was not always leisurely and peaceful... The novel by Ivan Petrovich Shukhov (1906-1977) tells about the events that took place in the Yaitskaya steppe on the eve of the First World War. It was first published in 1931 and was highly appreciated by M. Gorky.