“Three Different Armies” is a collection of short stories. The action of “Artillery Duel” takes place during the Great Patriotic War. A young, unfired and poorly trained soldier unexpectedly finds himself in a terrible mess, but seeing how bravely his comrades behave, he decides to stand to the end, and this saves his life. But communist propaganda distorts even a simple soldier’s feat in its own way. The story “The Dembel Accord” is dedicated to the Soviet army during the times of stagnation. Here the narration is laced with humor, because it cannot be otherwise. Finally, the work “Jackals” tells about soldiers from the time of the second Russian-Chechen campaign. Priorities, motivation and training methods have changed. Humor, if present, is used to relieve a tense situation. The unpredictability of the results of military operations begins to acquire mysticism and fatalism. Nobody is sure of anything. Comrade Sukhov’s phrase involuntarily comes to mind: “The East is a delicate matter!”