The book of the military historian Vladimir Spiridenkov for the first time reliably restores the events of the Nazi occupation of the northwestern regions of the USSR. For three long years, they became one of the main centers of the people's struggle, a kind of partisan republic. The author objectively talks about the tragedy of the civilian population, caught between the hammer of the partisans and the anvil of the Nazis, describes the realities of the sabotage war, leads a dramatic chronicle of the confrontation between our forest soldiers and enemy punishers.