Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev is a world-famous scientist, writer, philosopher, and publicist. Millions of readers know his books "Gaping Heights", "Global Humanist", "Katastroika", "Russian Tragedy" and others. But few people know that he went through the entire war from 1941 to 1945. He served in the cavalry, in the tank forces, then, after graduating from flight school, he fought on the legendary Il-2 attack aircraft. A. A. Zinoviev's memoirs contain not only many interesting and vivid details about the military operations, but also the author's assessment of the events that took place, as well as reflections on Stalin, the peculiarities of the Soviet system, the army, and the reasons for our failures and victories in the Great Patriotic War.