A new book by a popular historian tells about a radical turning point during the Great Patriotic War . 1943 opened for the Red Army "the era of victorious salutes" . There are past panic retreats and tankaphobias, communication interruptions and frontal attacks without artillery preparation. There was no more absolute superiority of enemy aircraft and daily soul-exhausting raids of dive bombers. However, our artillery was still beating not so much on the targets as on the squares; interaction between the branches of the troops was not worked out, and human losses remained unreasonably high. And yet the strategic situation gradually changed in favor of the Red Army, which, along with experience, gained faith in victory. According to the writer-frontline writer Vasily Bykov: "The war taught . Gradually, military action, especially at the lower level, began to acquire an element of rationality... “The experience of great blood allowed us in 1943 to win the battles for Stalingrad, at Rzhev and on the Kursk arc .. Ahead were "ten Stalin strikes", the expulsion of the enemy outside the USSR, the liberation of Europe, the storming of Berlin and the final defeat of fascism...