Soldiers Aren't Born

January 1943. The Stalingrad Front. The intensity of the fighting has reached its peak, and the balance of power is beginning to tip in favor of the Red Army. This is not only a matter of numerical superiority, but also of an unyielding will to victory, as well as courage and heroism, for soldiers are not born, they are made.The second book in the trilogy by classic military prose writer Konstantin Simonov continues to acquaint readers with the course of the Great Patriotic War. At the center of the events is the final stage of the Battle of Stalingrad, victory in which marked a fundamental turning point in the war. The main characters of the book—Senior Lieutenant Sintsov and Brigade Commander Serpilin—continue their difficult journey at the front to defeat the enemy.On the pages of the work, the reality of the front and life in the rear—in Moscow and Tashkent—are skillfully combined, more vividly depicting the pain of losing loved ones and the feelings of the main characters, but the author's main idea—"soldiers are not born"—is invisibly present throughout the entire book, and heroic Stalingrad is the best place where the combat skill of the Red Army was revealed.Depicting the heroism of Soviet soldiers and officers, Konstantin Simonov also shows the work of the staffs, the planning of offensive operations, and the commanders' anxieties about the outcome of the battle, not forgetting to mention those who sat out in the rear.The novel "Soldiers Are Not Born" received high praise from Soviet literature classics M. N. Alekseev and Yu. V. Bondarev, and its plot has not lost its relevance even today.