His Name Was Not Listed

The new novel by the prominent Soviet writer Boris Vassilyev " His Name Was Not Listed " takes us back to the early days of the war . This is the first attempt in Soviet literature to tell about the legendary defence of the Brest Fortress in the genre of the novel.

This westernmost Soviet fortress was reduced to ruins in the first hours of the war . The German armies overran it and marched ahead , developing their inva sion and capturing one city after another . The Brest Fortress was ir the rear , but had not surrendered . Its ruins , pounded by bombs and shells , gutted by the German sappers , scorched by fire throwers , continued to resist . Wound ed , charred , exhausted by hunger , thirst and incessant fighting , men in rags rose again and again from behind piles of brick , crawled out of cellars , and counter - attacked.

“ Historians have no love of legends , " writes Boris Vassilyev , " but you will certainly be told about the unknown defender whom the Germans were able to take only in the tenth month of the war , in April 1942. " The writer gave this legendary personage the name of Nikolai Pluzhnikov.

The nineteen - year - old Lieutenant Pluzhnikov arrived in Brest on the last peaceful night of 1941. His name hadn't yet been put on the muster - roll of the garrison , but he took up his position beside those who fought to the last and “ ... died without disgrace " . The cruellest trials which fell to the share of the fortress garrison did not break this Russian soldier . And , as a reward — or perhaps as another trial of the strength of his spirit - Love came to him- in the last months of his life and in the most inhuman conditions possible.

This volume contains another story by Boris Vassilyev , one already known to foreign readers — " The Dawns Are Quiet Here " : from previous publication in the magazine Soviet Literature and from the film of the same title . This story about the young girls who formed an anti - aircraft platoon that came to grips with a group of enemy paratroopers was the first work of fiction to be published by Boris Vassilyev and brought him immediate recognition .