Among the tragic consequences of the war with Nazi Germany - colossal human casualties and destruction - the Soviet Union had to face the problem of helping millions of injured and crippled people who returned from the front to civilian life. Mark Edele's book traces the history of veterans of the Great Patriotic War from the first post-war years until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The historian shows how, within the framework of the Soviet regime, a popular movement of former front-line soldiers was born and developed, the purpose of which was to achieve recognition of their merits to the country and rights to various privileges. To do this, they had to overcome a certain resistance from the state, which was in no hurry to recognize them as a separate social group, suspected of political disloyalty and did not want to bear the costs of granting veterans a special status. The author sets himself the task of demonstrating how in 1978, despite the resistance of official institutions and the strengthening cult of war, the former front-line soldiers still managed to achieve what they wanted. Mark Edele - historian, specialist in the Soviet Union, professor at the University of Melbourne.