Snow covered grounds in Leningrad, Russia (present day Saint Petersburg, Russia). Soviet artillery in front of the Neva River and a road with moving streetcar. Ships stuck on frozen river. A man stands beside a Howitzer in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Soviet soldiers bring a tank and a barrage balloon. People on the frozen streets of Leningrad, Russia. A destroyed bus covered in deep snow on the street. A Soviet soldier’s moustache is covered with snow. Soviet soldiers in prone position to defend Leningrad from the German forces. German tanks and soldiers on the streets of Leningrad during World War II. No electricity and water supply. Russian civilians walk as streetcars remained out of service and covered in deep snow. People dig holes in frozen streets to gather water. A woman washing clothes on the street. Food is rationed during Leningrad blockade. A baker cuts bread into slices for rationing. A woman receives rationed bread. Women clean the rubble on streets. Aerial bombing of Leningrad by the Luftwaffe. A German Karl-Gerät “Thor” supermortar. German soldiers load and fire supermortar. A mortar fire hits a house, destroying it entirely. A building falls to the ground. German bombardment of Leningrad. Machines and workers build supplies and weapons in Leningrad. Women create mortars. Animated maps show Leningrad mostly surrounded by German territory. Shell manufacture. Supplies are brought in by truck, tracked vehicles, tractors, and railroad on ice across Lake Ladoga. German planes bomb trucks. Russians laying railroad tracks across frozen Lake Ladoga. Infirm and sick civilians, women, children board train out of Leningrad for medical treatment. A traffic enforcer waves flag on Lake Ladoga. Red Army soldiers in white suits advance in the battlefield. A tank advances. The arrival of spring. Melting snow in springtime. A wooden cross from a German grave is being washed away in a stream. Soviet trucks moving in convoy across flooded Lake Ladoga in spring. Russian children playing on the streets. People indulge in recreational activities. Civilians riding bicycles and taking streetcars. A woman cleans window. Russians crowd the streetcars of Leningrad. Soviet sailors clapping on deck. Russian dancers dancing traditional folk dances to celebrate. Soviet Navy sailors play music for the dancers. The sailors clap and applaud the performance. German prisoners of war enter Leningrad. A Soviet woman spits on the captured German soldiers. Russians marching in Leningrad.
Slate refers to March 17, 1917, when Russian Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, and a Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) during World War 1. It is followed by a few scenes from what appears to be a staged film enactment of a mob storming a palace. Soldiers and citizens, carrying sticks and clubs, rush up a stairway inside, while others are seen charging an entrance and beating on palace gates. A statue of the Russian Imperial Seal is seen with one eagle head broken. Next, actual footage shows a prison courtyard littered with debris. Bars on the doors and windows are bent and broken. Several persons are seen moving about in the debris. Later a group of people are seen at work cleaning up debris, placing it into a horse-drawn wagon. Slate compares this event to the fall of the Bastille during the French revolution. Russian soldiers loyal to the Bolsheviks and the Soviet cheer in streets of Petrograd. Armored cars and an artillery field piece are manned by the revolutionary Russian soldiers. A street is filled with Russian soldiers and some civilians.
Snow covered Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Hermitage Museum in the background. The Alexander Column is seen in front of the Hermitage Museum. A very large horse drawn sleigh in view. A man sits on the horse drawn sleigh. Several women and girls come out of the Hermitage Museum and climb on the sleigh. Two sleighs filled with girls accompany a large group of girls walking through the snow. They all wave and smile. .
French President Raymond Poincaré on an official state visit to Russia to reinforce the Franco-Russian Alliance in July 1914. On July 20, Raymond Poincaré arrives in St. Petersburg by ship, accompanied by Premier René Viviani. Raymond Poincaré disembarks from the ship. Raymond Poincaré walks together with Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Russian honor guards welcome President Poincaré. Raymond Poincaré takes an open horse-drawn carriage. President Raymond Poincaré watches a military procession with Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Russian soldiers marching. A car arrives to pick up President Raymond Poincaré.
Map shows distance is 4662 miles from New York to Moscow or St. Petersburg, Russia. Map shows that it is 340 miles further from Moscow to the Eastern edge of the Soviet Union. Views of the fountain and gardens at the Palace of Peter, the Great, and brief view of the Palace building. View of a Russian church building.
After bombing Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in Soviet Union, German forces besiege the city. Soviet troops with weapons in snow covered areas of Leningrad. Soviet tanks on the streets and soldiers escort an inflated barrage balloon down a street. Russian anti-aircraft guns setup and manned in Saint Isaac's Square, with St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background. Russian citizens move about in bitter cold and snowy winter conditions. Some pull sleds with belongings along bomb-damaged streets. Russian soldiers in trenches outside the city work to defend the city. A Russian soldier with a frozen moustache. Soviet soldiers in winter coats lay prone in the snow with rifles and machine guns ready. Dragons teeth anti tank obstacles seen at city edges. Civlians facing disease and famine walk in the streets and gather together. People stand over a frozen blanked-covered body on a street. A man pulls another person hunched over in a sled. A train locomotive covered in snow, idle with no fuel. Idle streetcar trolleys in the streets covered with snow, as there is no electric power to operate them. Streets filled with workers walking to work. After water is shut off due to frozen pipes, civilians gather around a hole dug in the streets and a ditch alongside a street to get to water. They dip buckets into water-filled holes and trenches in the city. A sign describes food rations allowed. Baker cuts bread ration for a civilian factory worker. An army of civilian women workers gather together in the streets to dig and remove rubble from the streets to try to ward off disease and contamination.