Volokolamsk Highway

The novel, based on real events in October, 1941, during the Battle of Moscow, describes defensive fighting over several days by a single battalion of the 316th Rifle Division against elements of German Army Group Center.

[2] Bek had been told of Momysh-Uly's heroic conduct as a Senior Lieutenant in command of the 1st Battalion of the 1077th Rifle Regiment in the October battles before Moscow.

In the end, Momysh-Uly strongly disapproved of Bek's book, which he claimed to be an unrealistic depiction of events, and criticized the author relentlessly for the remainder of his life.

A party of picked men then successfully stage a deep raid at night against a German-held village, raising the morale of the entire battalion.

The remainder of Part One describes the formation and training of the division, the growing personal relationship between Momysh-Uly and Panfilov, and the sound advice the former takes from the latter.

At the close of the day, Momysh-Uly learns that Germans to his north have penetrated the front, and that the scratch battalion to his south has been routed; he is facing encirclement.

In the end, Momysh-Uly devises a tactic to enable his entire combat group to escape from encirclement, breaking through German forces bogged down in the mud, and the troops rejoin the division in Volokolamsk, much to the approval of Gen. Panfilov.

[7] Inspired by the novel, future Israeli Chief of the General Staff Motta Gur once held a "Panfilov Roll Call" for two soldiers who deserted from his company when he was a young officer, shaming them in front of the other troops; he wrote that it was a common practice in the IDF at the time.

"[11] The novel was well known among members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces;[12] in 1961, Raúl Castro told a journalist that every regimental commander was "compelled to have a copy".

[13] In Jesús Díaz's acclaimed 1987 novel Las iniciales de la tierra, the protagonist cites Bek's book as a major influence on his life.

50/63 - drafted on the initiative of Walter Ulbricht - which introduced Volokolamsk Highway as part of the political education program for the soldiers of the National People's Army.