Cloud Battalion

Today, writing about the war - about that very one, the Great Patriotic War - is difficult. Because so much has already been written and told, and now there are almost no survivors who remember it. Writing for teenagers is doubly challenging. The modern young generation seems to be interested in completely different things... It turns out, no! It was precisely the teenagers who awarded this book first place at the All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children and youth "Kniguru". It is among them that this piercing tale found the most vivid response. Complex and ambiguous, at times it turns the soul inside out, but it also helps to feel and understand what was. Before our eyes, they will appear: waist-deep in mud and snow, partisans escort terrified police officers, exchanging grenades from the Germans for the famous Lend-Lease stew, desperately wanting to warm up and fill their stomachs. Here is Dima, who lost his family in the first days of the war, picking up a weapon and dreaming of finally counting the killed Nazis. And here is the audacious Sanych, charmed by a gypsy against bullets and photographs, a talker and a fighter by nature, who fears only three things: betrayal, the troll from grandmother's fairy tales, and the strict girl Alevtina. And here is Kovalets, carefully smoothing his hair with a dandy's comb, but a brave and desperate warrior. Or Shurik, nicknamed Shchuriy, dreaming of finally getting his first pistol... The twentieth century has closed its doors, taking away millions of lives that were lost in millions of wars. But through the gunpowder smoke, Sanych, Kovalets, Alka, and many others look at us. Who are they? It’s hard to say. One thing is clear: they all are the cloud battalion. "Cloud Battalion" is a contemporary book about the war and its heroes, a book about fates, about duty, and, of course, about the courage to live. A book written in the canons of domestic youth prose, but boldly stepping beyond those canons. The absence of "heroism", simplicity, unsaid words, and the ordinariness of WAR place this book alongside the best works of the 20th century. For older school children.