Kolya Svetlov

Leningrad is starving, winter 1941. After a severe concussion, Sergeant Major Nikolai Svetlov is discharged from the hospital and assigned to the zoo, where workers perform a quiet act of heroism day after day, saving animals from starvation. A hippopotamus named Beauty holds a special place in the zoo. At first, the sergeant views his service at the zoo as a misunderstanding and dreams of being back at the front, but the longer he stays, the more he realizes the importance of his mission. Through kindness and selfless love for animals, he and the remaining zoo keepers preserve the warmth of human souls and give hope for miracles to all residents of besieged Leningrad. Because of his concussion, Kolya could hear the hippopotamus. Over time, he got used to it. Kolya had a niece from his late sister, Zoya, an inquisitive girl. She was seven. Svetlov himself was 21. The winter of 1941 was brutal. Kolya was walking with Zoya after a day at the zoo, picking up his paycheck (the food allotted to employees, and he'd managed to serve but was hospitalized due to a wound). Before he could get there, the alarm sounded again. A shell landed nearby but missed, though he lost consciousness. And Kolya woke up in someone’s house, on a fairly comfortable bed, warm, with Zoya nearby.