Wikapaedia's revue in English and Russian. Very informative with a few historical discrepancies pointed out..........but WARNING........don't read it if you don't want to know the ending. So there!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Company

EDIT: Before shooting the film young artists met veterans of the Afghan War - the soldiers of legendary 9-oy company. Some were introduced to the prototypes of their characters.