The Living and the Dead. Book One

Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (1915 - 1979) - a famous Russian writer, who served as a war correspondent throughout the entire war; a poet who immortalized himself with the poignant poem "Wait for Me, and I'll Return...", and the novel "The Living and the Dead", which became an epic artistic narrative about the path of the Soviet people to victory in the Great Patriotic War. In his epoch-making work, the author sought to combine two planes - a reliable "chronicle" of the main events of the war, seen through the eyes of the main characters Serpilin and Sintsov, and an analysis of these events from the perspective of their contemporary understanding and assessment by the writer. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name, with the brilliantly portrayed images of the main characters by Kirill Lavrov and Anatoly Papanov. The novel "The Living and the Dead" was subsequently continued by two more novels, together they form a well-known trilogy. The first book covers the period from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War to the start of the counteroffensive near Moscow. War correspondent Ivan Sintsov finds himself at the front and is trapped along with General Fyodor Serpilin's regiment.