Continuation of the novel “Volunteer. In the great war.” Having visited the battlefields of the First World War, our contemporary Mikhail Krynnikov again finds himself in a different time, encountering unexpected difficulties, opposition and outright anachronisms there. Russia in the mid-nineteenth century, the reign of Emperor Nicholas I is coming to an end. the smell of the coming big war, which will later be called “Crimean,” although military operations will take place even in Kamchatka. But is the country, its army and navy, economy and industry ready for it? Is the leadership ready for it? Will just one person, volunteer Krynnikov, be able to move the clumsy colossus of the Russian Empire from its place in order to change the sad outcome of the future war?