Vasily Bykov throughout the creative path remained faithful to the main theme - the Great Patriotic War .. The author, who himself had passed through the battlefields, knew too well that it was in these cruel conditions of the necessity of choice that the essence of man was clearly determined. Bykov reveals the spiritual and civic fullness of his characters, shows that the moral feat is devoid of a halo of outwardly bright, spectacular heroic action. The book includes the stories "Sotnikov", "Obelisk", "Live until dawn", "Crane cry", "Sign of trouble", as well as journalistic articles "Bells of Khatyn" and "How to write the story "Sotnikov" .