Translation:

"The most precious thing in a person is life. It is given to him once, and it is necessary to live it so that it was not painfull for aimlessly lived years, so as not to burn from shame for the cheap and petty past, so that, in dying, you could say: all life and all the strength was given to the most important thing in the world - the struggle for the liberation of mankind.

And you need to rush to live. After all a ridiculous disease or some tragic accident can interrupt it."

- Nikolai Ostrovsky, How the Steel was Tempered