Bulat Okudzhava "Rendezvous with Bonaparte" Moscow: "Azbuka-classic", 2014 

This book about the events of another Great Patriotic War was written in 1983. Okudzhava reveals distant events through the personal and even intimate: memoirs, biographies, and diaries. Reality blends with fiction, but the novel can be considered historical, as it focuses not so much on details as on the logic of great upheavals. Okudzhava examines both a specific era and world history as a whole, and his observations are not always reassuring. The author of "A Rendezvous with Bonaparte" is convinced that humanity's most important task is to end war altogether, but some of his characters' reflections cast doubt on whether this is even possible. 

"...Everything comes to an end: empires perish, noble impulses fade, dazzling hopes turn into farce, great plans into a heap of dung; the tombs of kings remain, retribution awaits the victor."