This is a short military story. Russian author Arkady Babchenko once worked as a war correspondent. Using first-person narration and depicting my experiences alongside my fellow soldiers, as well as our ordeals between life and death, he vividly portrays the brutal realities of Russian military operations in Chechnya in the 1990s. He also lays bare the psychological and physical wounds the war inflicted on people, their families, and those around them, wounds that proved difficult to heal.
The novel also gives a fairly detailed account of the Russian military's corrective and reformative education system. After reading it, readers will gain a better understanding of the daily administration and instruction in disciplinary units. It also exposes flaws in the existing system, including veterans bullying new recruits, soldiers abandoning their posts or fleeing their barracks, loopholes in military equipment management, the theft and resale of equipment, and corruption in personnel promotions and transfers.
