Georgy Davydovich Venus (1898–1939) was born in St. Petersburg into a family of descendants of German foundry workers invited to Russia by Peter the Great. Georgy Venus entered the First World War with the rank of ensign in 1915. He was wounded twice and awarded the Cross of St. George. The horror of the revolution forced George Venus, like many, to flee south and join the ranks of the Volunteer Army. Ensign Venus ended up in the Drozdovsky volunteer officer regiment, famous for its courage on the battlefields of the Don and Crimea. In 1925, already in exile, Georgy Venus wrote this novel based on his memories of those events.