Soviet war strategy against German invasion during World War II. Home of Russian musician Tchaikovsky converted into museum and his symphonies. Home and portrait of Leo Tolstoy in Russia. Dead bodies of Russian men and also some women and children dead civilians lie on snow covered grounds following a massacre by retreating German forces. Russian citizens cry and mourn the atrocity and loss. Russian children abused and mass murdered by German forces. Russians tortured and killed by Germans. Russians swear their oath to fight against Germany and take revenge. City of Leningrad attacked by German Army.
The Siege of Leningrad, Soviet Union, during World War 2. German Army bombs Russian city of Leningrad. German artillery fired. Fire and explosion. Smoke rises up in the sky. Streets burn in Leningrad. The native people of Leningrad, Russia. Women remove rubble from streets. Animated maps show Leningrad blockade.
The Battle of Stalingrad, Russia. Animated map shows the Battle of Caucasus and the Crimea. Germans plan to capture the Russian oil fields. Stalingrad is bombarded from German aircraft. Smoke rises due to the explosion. German guns fired. Wrecked Soviet buildings in Stalingrad. House to house fight in the streets of Stalingrad. The Russians fight back. Snow covered mountains. Maps show Russian encirclement of Nazi German forces. Marshal Nikolai Voronoff confers with his aides. (World War II period).
The final struggle for Stalingrad during World War Two. Christmastime, 1942 in Moscow. Russian civilians obtaining fir trees for Christmas celebrations. A large beautifully decorated Christmas tree set up in the Hall of Pillars, in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. Men and women couples dancing in the hall to music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Smiling Russian children at play indoors, on slides, on a carousel ride, and playing hand games with one another. New Year's eve is different. World War 2 Soviet war production workers in a munitions factory greet each other but continue working without stopping. On the Stalingrad front lines, the Soviet Army marks the New Year, 1943, by launching artillery barrages, through the night and continuing unabated well into the next day. Russian Sukhoi Su-2 light bombers drop incendiaries on German positions. Brief partial glimpse of a Russian Sherman tank. Soviet Army soldiers using flame throwers. Soviet troops moving across ice and snow on armed Aerosan ice gliders. Batteries of Soviet Katusha rockets fire barrages. Soviet infantry and tanks advance across vast barren snow-covered terrain. Animated map depicts Nazi German military forces being pounded on several fronts. A solitary horse standing in midst of Stalingrad destruction and ruins. Scene from February 2, 1943 as Soviet soldiers, symbolically, fire the last shot in the Battle of Stalingrad. A smiling Soviet soldier then places a cover over the muzzle of the field artillery piece. Scenes of the battle's aftermath. Russian officers hug one another. The Soviet Union flag is hung from a city building. Numerous German soldiers surrender under a white flag of truce. Many surrendering German Generals are seen.
German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, enters a wooden building near Stalingrad where he surrenders the German 6th Army. He, and Arthur Schmidt, General-lieutenant, Chief of the 6th Army Staff; take seats,surrounded by Soviet Army officers. Scene shifts to the twenty two Divisions (300 thousand men) of the 6th Army trudging through the snow as they surrender. Most of them are seen in open fields near Stalingrad, Russia. Closeups of some make their way along a street in the city. Many wear makeshift shoes and other contrived clothing. They are clearly suffering from their lack of any cold weather equipment. Aerial view of a long line of surrendering German soldiers making their way on snow-covered street in Leningrad. Closeups of some of the German soldiers. One soldier walking slowly, alone, across a stretch of snow. He wears woven homemade coverings over his feet.He heads, alone, toward an open stretch of barren snowy land. Camera focuses on ice strewn Volga River. A dead German soldier lies on its bank. View of Russian countryside, the following Spring. An animated map depicts the extent of the Soviet advance in the previous winter with the occupation of 185 thousand square miles of territory (more than previously occupied by the German forces). Film shows weapons captured during the 6th Army surrender, including German aircraft, tanks, heavy artillery guns, light machine guns, rifles, artillery shells and small arms ammunition. Glimpse of dead German soldiers in the snow. Aerial view of rail cars containing captured German military supplies. Lines of surrendering German soldiers making their way in the snow. Numerous dead German soldiers in body bags, in the snow. Animated film reviews the German operation Barbarossa and subsequent events in the German invasion of Soviet Russian in 1941, 1942, and 1943. Glimpses of Russian troops dressed in white and British troops advancing. Film concludes with artistic representation of United Nations flags and troops marching to victory.
White Russian infantry in Russia during Russian Civil War. They are heavily clothed and carry rifles with fixed bayonets, as they march in line, over snow covered road. The Russian infantry fan out as they ascend a wide snow covered hill. Views of Port city of Archangel.