President of United States Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon arrive at the Vnukovo II airport, in Moscow, Soviet Union (USSR). View from the cockpit of the Presidential VC-137C (Boeing 707) aircraft, named "Spirit of 76", as it taxis on the active runway, and then on the ramp, after landing. View from Air Force One, as the cabin door is opened. A red-carpeted stairway is rolled toward the aircraft. The American flag flies next to the Soviet flag, atop the airport terminal building. A military brass band and honor guard, stand in formation. Several Soviet officials walk toward the Presidential aircraft. Mrs. Pat Nixon, exits the airplane a step ahead of President Nixon. They descend the stairway and are greeted by USSR President Nikolai V.Podgorny, Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, Foreign Minister, Andrei A. Gromyko, and other Soviet officials. The President and Mrs. Nixon shake hands with the officials and Mrs. Nixon accepts a bouquet of flowers. Next, the President is seen at attention, on the airport ramp, with three Soviet officials, and a U.S. Army attache, as the Soviet bandmaster conducts the band in what appears to be the U.S. National Anthem. View shifts, again, to the doorway of the President's airplane. The Soviet band and honor guard are seen from a stand of trees, as they parade past the airplane. Finally, a long line of automobiles is seen in a motorcade headed toward the city.
Views from the motorcade of President Nixon and Mrs. Nixon as they make their way from the airport to the city of Moscow, Soviet Union, on May 22, 1972. The motorcade proceeds along a very wide divided boulevard. American and Soviet flags adorn the lamp posts. Many Moscovites line the sidewalks to watch the motorcade. A large hammer and Sickle display and a large poster of Vladimir Lenin are seen in the center strip of the boulevard. Security guards all along the route of the motorcade. The motorcade enters the Kremlin walls and proceeds to the Armory Palace, where it enters through the iron gates into the courtyard.
Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin addresses the people of the Soviet Union during World War II. Men, women, and children listen to the speakers broadcasting the speech made by Stalin. “This war is not an ordinary war! It is the war of the entire Russian people.” the narrator translates Stalin’s speech. A printing press prints Russian newspapers. Man distributes newspapers. Russian men riding horses. Patriotic Russian men marching into a town to enlist in the war effort. Women plastering Soviet propaganda posters. Women and children trained for military tactics. A short-haired Russian woman tests a rifle. Boys use pickaxes in mining. A woman joins the Soviet Army. A female factory worker works with a lathe. An elderly Russian man harvesting wheat. A locomotive train driving. A woman piloting a ship. Women driving tractors. Women carry large sacks on their backs. Russian soldiers taking a metal bedframe. Farmers raising cattle. Houses, factories, and other infrastructure destroyed by fire and dynamite by Russians themselves. View of the Dniepropetrovsk dam in Ukraine. Russians blow up the Dniepropetrovsk Hydroelectric Station to prevent it from falling to Nazi hands. A woman torches her house. Farmers produce in fields. An old man with rifle watches sky for Nazi bombers. Burning houses and villages due to Soviet scorched earth policies. Guerrilla units trained and they march. Guerrilla soldiers with rifles. Men and women Soviet guerrilla soldiers talking. Soviet men hide in the bush. Guerrilla soldiers push down a telegraph post. A burning train. Guerrilla fighters shoot down German soldier. A burning oil depot. Exploding Nazi installations such as bridges, buildings, and warehouses. Russian guerrilla soldiers fire with machine guns. Animated map depicting Nazi German forces stopping outside Moscow. The Kremlin in Moscow. Fresh reserves of the Soviet Red Army march in Moscow.
Battles fought by Russians fighting military invasion from Germany during World War II. Miserable condition of civilians of Leningrad, the city surrounded by Germans in harsh cold and snow of winter starting in 1941. Lack of food, water, oil and electricity during siege of Leningrad by German forces. German artillery fire heavy projectiles. Workers in munition factories. Soldiers in snowy battlefield alert on their positions. Civilians migrate on ledges through a frozen Lake Ladoga eastwards. Food, medical care, oil and supplies to the city through the lake. German bombers raid the supply lines. Trucks drive at night on road over ice covered lake delivering relief supplies. A railway track built over Lake Ladoga to restore supply. Wounded civilians board the trains returning back across Lake Ladoga. Soviet Russian Army attacks invading Germans. Supply trucks roll over thawing ice of Lake Ladoga in early spring. Children and people during spring as Germans retreat. Civilians on the roads. A stage performance after defeat of German army enjoyed by Russian soldiers aboard a warship. Arrested Nazi soldiers walk under rifle guards of Red Army as Soviet citizens jeer and heckle the German prisoners.
Rebuilding operations in Stalingrad after the German attacks on the city in World War II. Russian refugees outside their tents. Children perform calisthenics. Rubble lay on ground. People engaged in reconstruction operations. Students of technical college rebuild a school building. Bricks laid down to reconstruct a building. Wreckage of Nazi planes spread on the ground. Nazi tanks transported on flat railroad cars. Radar indicates a German air attack. A man loads shells in an anti aircraft gun and fires at German planes.
Soviet troops march at a victory parade in Red Square after the Allied victory over Germany in World War II. Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Nikita Khrushchev, General Semen Budennyi and other officials atop Lenin's tomb as they review the victory parade. Nazi German flags and banners thrown at the foot of Lenin's tomb. High ranking Soviet military officers are seen watching the parade.