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After two devastating defeats of the German army - at Al-Alamein in Africa and at Stalingrad in the USSR - in late winter 1943, Ukrainian police units in Volyn left the service and joined the ranks of the newly created UPA. In order to replace them, the German occupation authorities conducted another forced voluntary mobilisation among Volyn youth. It is about these "black soldiers" that Oleksandr Yevtushko's novel tells us.