The trilogy “The Living and the Dead” (the novels “The Living and the Dead”, “Soldiers are not born”, “Last Summer”) by Konstantin Simonov is one of the brightest works about the Great Patriotic War . The plot line of the epic covers the period from June 1941 to July 1944, but not the entire time interval, but has a narrow time frame: "The Living and the Dead" - from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War to the beginning of the counteroffensive near Moscow. "Soldiers are not born" - winter 1942-1943; "The Last Summer" (1944)[edit] Many characters of the epic (Sintsov, Artemyev, Kozyrev, Ivanov, Polunin and others) first appear in the novel “Comrades in Arms” about the armed conflict in the region of the Khalkhin-Gol River a work that became a kind of prologue of “The Living and the Dead” .. Heroes of the work are fictional people, although they have real prototypes. The image of General Serpilin is collective. One of its prototypes is Colonel Kutepov, the other prototypes are Generals Gorbatov and Grishin. A member of the military council of the front of Lviv in the last book resembles the Soviet state and military-political figure Lev Mehlis .. The prototype of General Kozyrev served as Major General Kopets . Prototype of Nadezhda Kozyrev was actress Valentina Serova .