In the book, the author depicts the personality and life of Andrey Andrejevich Vlasov in a captivating way, tries to objectively find answers to important questions and provides a comprehensive view of one of the great themes of the Second World War.
How could it happen that the youngest Soviet general and Stalin's darling became his greatest opponent, who did not hesitate even to ally with the greatest Soviet enemy at the time, Hitler's Germany?
Why did he finally believe that the greater danger to Russia was not Hitler, but Stalin?
When Vlasov and his 2nd shock army got into the German encirclement near Leningrad, Stalin sent a plane with a rescue group for him three times to transport him to safety, to the Soviet rear, and there he wanted to entrust him with the command of the Stalingrad front. However, Vlasov refused to abandon his soldiers each time. He preferred to keep trying to cross the marshes and hungry with a handful of loyalists to safety. When and why did this change occur? Was it perhaps out of cowardice when, due to the betrayal of a mayor who was among the Old Believers who hated the Bolsheviks, he was taken prisoner by the Germans?
So why did he decide to fight again, this time against his countrymen and risk falling in new battles? And he even teamed up with Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, who considered the Slavs to be an inferior race?