In the novel prevails not the image of battle scenes, combat clashes, but the drama of human souls, caused by war, since the picture of fates of the heroes of the novel is in the form of a memory. The writer in relation to Afghan warriors uses the concepts "basmach", "bandit" from the lexicon of the Soviet soldier. All this adds to the novel of naturality.
The work is also significant by the fact that it convincingly affirms the idea that all cruelty always causes cruelty. If the Afghan soldiers treated the captured Soviet soldiers very harshly, then the Soviet troops treated their enemies no less cruelty. In the words of the soldier Habibula Assatullayev, the horrifying scenes of the war are depicted: "At night, the soldiers of our squadron caught two bandits. When the young soldiers led them to the commander of the battalion, the "old" turned them back, bound the prisoners and burned them. They burned for about an hour, but did not burn completely. We covered the remains with branches. Yes, the former man in me was not capable of that". The tongue does not turn to comment on such a picture. The novel-requiem of Abdurashid Nurmuradov on the example of the fate of the characters uncover the corrupt sides of the Soviet system.
In realistic tones is drawn the short-sightedness of the country’s leadership, their disinterest in the fate of people, lack of discipline in the army, moral decline among the management, sales among officers. The sale of weapons by officers for personal gain, the rewarding not of soldiers who did not regret their forces or lives, but of those who bought these awards, the bullying of the new recruits. The heartless attitude of the Soviet bureaucratic machine, the disinterest in human fates with some irony is transmitted in the words of Bakhtiyar Kuchkarov: "…The body of Sasha for fifteen days was kept in the refrigerator for some reason. And there was a turn that was an integral part of our lives". The decisions that were to affect the outcome of many battles were not taken by the field commanders themselves, but by officers who sat somewhere there, in various offices, reducing all the efforts of the fighters to failure and the death of the soldiers.
Now a few words about Abdurashid Nurmuradov. He was born in a large family. There were eleven children in the family. His father, a participant in the Second World War, because of his truthfulness did not get along with the big bosses and lived in narrow conditions.