The book in question is a project by the Russian Academy of Sciences, that has collected stories, interviews and photographs of its own scholars who, in their youth, took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 – 1945 or otherwise witnessed its events. The book is divided into 4 parts: in the first of them, we can find the interviews with actual soldiers, in the second – with the survivors of the Siege of Leningrad, in the third – with home front workers, and in the fourth – with the evacuated children and their caretakers throughout the whole ordeal.

All interviews were carried out and recorded by a single person, Natalia Romanova, and follow one and the same structure. They take off with each interlocutor's background, family information and a few words on their career in the later life; then, the war memories are shared; and in conclusion, there are two repeating questions for everyone: on their attitude towards Stalin and their thoughts about religion.

The middle part of each interview cannot be possibly retold, only read to one's self. Still, here is a glimpse of what the authors are talking about in each of the book's four sections.

Part 1. "At the frontline"

Evgeny Chelyshev, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, former radio gunner and military translator, who took part in the Red Square parade in 1940, describes his first encounter with saboteurs dressed as policemen, his first shock at the sight of a demolished airfield; the way they would turn jet trainers into combat planes; his first interrogation of a POW, who was surprised into talking... by the translator's recital of Heine's poems.

Vladimir Shagal (who calls himself a Karapalkak by blood, because this republic was home to the fellow soldier who was the first to volunteer to become his blood donor) was a signalman from the army that defended Stalingrad, participated in the liberation of Ukraine, and, then, the liberation of Korea, speaks about the people and peoples who fought side by side; personal encounters with Marshal Chuikov, and how the latter remembered each single division under his command...

Part 2. "Blockade"

Nina Gavryushina, a major specialist in Hindi literature: about her mother, a general hospital practitioner, and the terrible death of her two aunts; about the doctors who invited them to live at a hospital to avoid running into the burglars who were constantly breaking into the dilapidated house; about school graduation ceremony where the girls were awarded a piece of cloth each – and could finally afford new dresses...

Lyudmila Stefanchuk, a New Zealand specialist: why the blockade in Leningrad was worse than can ever be shown in movies; how, after the warehouses were bombed, she would eat earth, because it was soaked in cooking oil; about a cat that her parents had to euthanize so that his neighbors would not steal him and boil him...

Part 3. "At the home front"

Viktor Rastyannikov, an Indologist: about working at a factory at a young age; about how, during the famine, he would still save up bread to trade it for... Jules Verne books; about how he and his family walked 20 km on a winter day to get to the village where their relatives lived – only to find it burned to the ground; and what is required to have the best chance of winning a war.

Anna Muranova, a scholar of Oriental studies, previously – a home front worker: about why she still cannot bear seeing women selling things at a flea market; about walking 40 km to work on a collective farm; about a brother who died in a concentration camp; about a cup of salt that cost a quarter of her father's monthly salary; and why it is impossible to get used to war.

Part 4. "Children of War"

Irina Smilyanskaya, a specialist in the history of Arab countries: about working as a school counselor in a village full of evacuated children; about her later transfer to a hospital; why the delicious dinner untouched by the wounded soldiers was hard to swallow; about four weeks spent on the train where he could neither look out of the window nor rise higher than to her knees...

Yuri Vanin, a specialist in the history of Korea: about how, during the evacuation, he and his mother did not have enough space in the house, and the factory workers built a shelter for them; about the incredible coincidence when his sister was able to join him in the evacuation after being assigned to the local school as a teacher; about what it's like to play the role of a fascist in the school theater production; and why he does not listen to those who "think themselves strategists while observing the battle from the sildelines."

The entire book can be read in Russian by the following link:

https://book.ivran.ru/sites/31/files/vojna-i-pamyat.pdf