Born to Crawl

Metro 2033: Born to Crawl is the debut novel by Victor Lebedev, written as part of the Metro 2033 universe. The fiftieth book of the series, this novel is the first part of the Spirit of Freedom trilogy. The action of the novel unfolds in Moscow.

Synopsis
It's been 20 years since the Great Shoah. During this time a whole generation of Muscovites grew up for whom the tunnel gloom is nicer than the sunlight, and the concrete vaults above their heads are dearer and more comprehensible than the heavenly height. That height, which, it would seem, is lost to humanity forever. But who says that those born to crawl cannot fly? Especially when a vague, unattainable dream of the sky suddenly finds the possibility of realization...

Main characters

 * Mikhail Yermolin, the protagonist of the whole book, a stalker from the Orekhovo station, who wanted to help Nemov and, by pure chance and of his own free will, decided to participate in the expedition.
 * Sergey Wilder - the antagonist of the novel, the man, because of whom the entire population of the station Orekhovo died, because of him the entire military unit died out, as Wilder murdered all its inhabitants. Danilov's opponent.
 * Ivan Danilov - stalker from Pechatnikov, a fighter from Nemov's unit, together with Wilder fights for Mikhail. Both are former friends who became enemies.

Secondary characters

 * Oleg Nemov, commander of the expedition, was sent to Kaluga because of the SOS signal. As it turned out later, it was Vedeneev's trap to remove Nemov and become the ruler. He is mortality wounded during the defense of Orekhovo. Was killed by Mikhail to put him out of his misery. Before the shot that cut his life short, he noticed Wilder, but didn't have time to report it.
 * Andrei Pavlovich Vedeneev is the ambitious ruler of the Pechatniki Confederation. He sent Nemov on an expedition to get rid of a pretender to his post.

Interesting Facts
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 * The 50th book of the Universe.
 * The working title is "The Choice".
 * The final title refers to a quote from Maxim Gorky's "Song of the Falcon" (1895), which has become a winged expression: "those born to crawl cannot fly".
 * Second book with yellow stripes on the cover.