"Through the Laughter of Iron" and "Winter in the Bunker" are excellent examples of military prose by UPA officer Stepan "Hrin" Stebelskyi. The first thing that comes to mind when you read the atmospheric text is not the struggle of the Ukrainian nation wrapped in wistful songs and sung with tearful lines but mafia Sicily from box-office American movies. The district leader of the OUN or the local commander of the UPA appears like a mafia don whom everyone wants to help. He is the only source of justice in the country; only from him can Ukrainians hope for protection, but he will also be severely punished for treason.
This book is not about fictional ideal heroes but real, living heroes, even more alive than the reader's contemporaries. It is about courage, devotion to the Motherland, and the ideal of military service. The book, without a doubt, will give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the daily life and combat operations of the UPA because it was not written by someone with a rich imagination but a real Bander commander.
Stepan Stebelskyi - UPA major, commander of the "Udarniki-5" hundred, commander of the tactical section of TV-24 "Makivka" of the UPA-West group. One of the founders of the UPA engineering divisions. Head of the operation to eliminate the Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland, General Karol Swierczewski, in 1947.
Knight of the Silver Cross of Combat Merit 1st Class (1946) and the Gold Cross of Combat Merit 1st Class (posthumously).
