The attempt of the 2nd Shock Army to break the blockade of besieged Leningrad in the summer of 1942 ended in failure. To prepare a new offensive operation, code-named “Iskra,” the Supreme High Command Headquarters sends General Rokossovsky as its representative to the Volkhov Front. He does not have strong reserves or miracle weapons capable of quickly turning the situation at the front in favor of the Soviet troops, and his only trump card is his excellent mastery of Suvorov’s science of defeating the enemy not with numbers, but with skill. He is opposed by his longtime enemy, Field Marshal Manstein, who is preparing Operation Northern Lights with the goal of capturing Leningrad before the onset of autumn rains.