For Valor and Glory

The novel "For Valor and Glory" concludes the duology of the renowned Stavropol writer Vladimir Butenko, dedicated to the fate of the Cossacks during the Great Patriotic War. The tumult of war has separated the Cossack family of Shaganovs on both sides of the front. Red Army soldier Yakov, as part of a saber squadron, travels the warrior's path to Budapest, enhancing the glory of his ancestors. With wounds and his own blood, he washes away the stigma of being the "son of a village elder." Difficult trials also fall upon his wife Lydia, arrested by a SMERSH officer simply for being the daughter-in-law of the ataman.
The path of the older generation of Shaganovs and those who believed in the promises of the Nazis to "grant Cossack freedom" was fraught with hardships. With documentary precision and skill, the novel narrates the wanderings of many thousands of Cossack refugees, the quarrels among atamans, the stay of the Cossack Host in Belarus and Italy, and the tragedy of Lienz, when the English command deceitfully forced Cossack exiles and officers to accept the sorrowful "crown of truth".