“War does not have a woman’s face” - the history of the Second World War has refuted this truth. If previously a woman with a weapon in her hands was an exception to the rule, a rare phenomenon, a legend like Joan of Arc or Nadezhda Durova, then during the Great Patriotic War 800 thousand women served voluntarily and by conscription in the Red Army, of which over 150 thousand were awarded combat orders and medals, 86 became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and three became full holders of the Order of Glory. True, the attitude towards women medal bearers was, to put it mildly, ambiguous, and the word “front-line soldier” after the war became almost offensive (“We were even told: “How you earned your awards, hang them there.” Therefore, at first they didn’t want to wear any orders, no medals"). But PPZh is one thing, and quite another thing - graduates of the Central Women's Sniper Training School, pilots of three women's air regiments, fighters of a separate women's volunteer rifle brigade, female anti-aircraft gunners, medical instructors, partisans, even reconnaissance platoon commanders (there were such things!). This book gives a voice to women front-line soldiers who have gone through all the circles of front-line hell, in comparison with whose artless stories the best novels and films pale, even the legendary “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”