About the title
October 1941, outside Moscow. About three and a half thousand cadets from the Podolsk artillery and infantry schools receive orders to take up defensive positions on the Ilyinsky line and, together with regular units of the 43rd Army, hold back the advance of the fascist invaders until reinforcements arrive. Dying, the boys - cadets only yesterday - hold the defense against vastly superior German forces and, for twelve days, become an obstacle blocking the enemy's path to Moscow.