The revolution, the need for which was shouted on all corners, ranted in restaurants and whispered in kitchens, did not take place. General Keller and the regent of the empire, Grand Duke Mikhail, are establishing order in the country with an iron fist. And ordinary people like it. Because for disregarding the highest decrees on an eight-hour working day and increasing wages for workers, former directors and managers are going to build the Tikhvin hydroelectric power station, and front-line quartermasters and zemgusars, caught red-handed, are digging full-profile trenches as part of penal companies... All that remains is to end the war. Not some obscene Brest-Litovsk Treaty, but Victory! Gather all your strength, make the final push and strike where no one is waiting! And, as always, at the forefront of the attack are Lieutenant Colonel Gurov and his battalion...