A new book by a popular historian talks about a radical turning point during the Great Patriotic War. The year 1943 ushered in the “era of victorious fireworks” for the Red Army. Panic retreats and fear of tanks, interruptions in communications and frontal attacks without artillery preparation are a thing of the past. There was no longer the absolute superiority of enemy aircraft and the daily soul-sapping raids of dive bombers. However, our artillery still hit not so much targets as areas; interaction between the branches of the military was not worked out, and human losses remained unreasonably high. And yet, the strategic situation gradually changed in favor of the Red Army, which, along with experience, gained faith in victory. According to the writer-front-line soldier Vasil Bykov: “The war taught. Gradually, military actions, especially at the lower echelons, began to acquire an element of rationality...” The experience gained at great expense made it possible in 1943 to win victories in the battles for Stalingrad, near Rzhev and on the Kursk Bulge. Ahead were “ten Stalinist strikes”, the expulsion of the enemy from the USSR, the liberation of Europe, the storming of Berlin and the final defeat of fascism...