Hot Snow

Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev (1924–2020) – a Russian Soviet writer, screenwriter, public figure, and participant in the Great Patriotic War. In 1942, while being a cadet at the infantry school, he was sent to Stalingrad. He went through the entire war, was wounded several times, and was awarded medals for bravery, for the defense of Stalingrad, and many other numerous awards. Yuri Bondarev began writing poetry and later prose while still in military school, to which he was sent for training right after the war. The action of the novel "Hot Snow" (1969) unfolds near Stalingrad in December 1942. The plot is based on real historical events – the attempt of the German Army Group "Don" led by Field Marshal Manstein to break the encirclement of Paulus's 6th Army at Stalingrad. The battle described in the novel determined the outcome of the entire Stalingrad battle. The author tells about the last days of the Stalingrad battle, about the people who stood to the death in the way of the fascists rushing to the surrounded forces of Paulus.