The war, with all its victories and defeats, heroism and tragedies, is an integral part of our country's past, and many more aspects of the military history of the Fatherland require thoughtful study. This book is a collection of articles based on the results of the I and II All-Russian military-historical forums "St. George Readings," organized by the Russian Military-Historical Society in 2019 and 2020. The diverse nature of the articles offered to the reader clearly testifies that military history cannot be reduced exclusively to hostilities. The fate of military leaders and the peculiarities of their psychology, the practice of awarding the key military award of imperial Russia - the Military Order of St. George, development of strategic thought and forms of officer training, analysis of the experience of both world wars, the impact of wars on the development of local communities, the position of the army in the era of the Russian revolution, the formation of heroic myths, hard work in the rear in the conditions of a "total war," political repression in the army - all these and other important issues are considered in this publication by leading domestic military historians. The book was published by the Russian Military Historical Society.