This book tells about the first battles in the Great Patriotic War from June 22, 1941 to April 1942, about K.K. Rokossovsky and other Soviet commanders, about the first tank battles near Dubno, about the defenders of the cities of Smolensk, Kaluga and Tula. The catastrophe that befell the Red Army in the summer of 1941 has been trying to explain and unravel for 60 years.