The rubbled house of Russian Composer Pyotr Ll'yich Tchaikovsky in the city of Klin, Russia. Snow covered area. Exterior of a building. A damaged motor bike and other equipment outside the building. A damaged statue. The upper part of the statue lies on the ground. A man lifts the statue. Pages of manuscripts lying outside the building. Interior of the building. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's damaged house. Interior of the building. Wrecked furniture and other material. Photographs framed on the wall. Rubble outside the building. A ransacked hospital. Damaged equipment lying outside the hospital. A field of German graves. (World War II period).
Civilians inspect their ruined homes in Russia during World War II. Women cry after watching their destroyed houses. Wounded children standing and weeping. Frozen corpses of Russian civilians. People watch the dead bodies lying in the snow. Russian soldiers fire railroad guns, machine guns and artillery in the battlefield. Tanks, cavalry and infantry advance towards the battlefield.
Damaged equipment on the battlefield in Russia during World War II. Snow covered area. Wrecked vehicles, ammunition and tanks. Frozen dead bodies lying in the snow. Wrecked airplanes, tanks, artillery and trucks. Ski troops and tanks move forward moving past abandoned German equipment. Firing and bombardment in the battlefield. Smoke rises up due to bombardment. Trees and buildings in the background. Soldiers fire rifles. Civilians cheer as armored units enter Kalinin. Buildings along the side of a snow covered field. A flag hoisted on a flag pole. Supply wagons and tanks advance on the battlefield.
A General awards medals to soldiers in Russia during World War II. Russian soldiers lined up on the front. Tanks and airplanes parked in the background. Medals on a table. A soldier stands with a flag. Soldiers receive medals from a General. A soldier waves the flag of honor. Cavalry moves forward with the flag.
Film opens showing Adolf Hitler, in World War 2, with Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Army Commander-in-Chief, and other top military members, planning for Operation Barbarossa (Attack to the East toward the Soviet Union). As he walks away from the table, he speaks briefly to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy). Next Hitler and Marshall Hermann Goering are seen strolling and conversing at the Eastern Front headquarters, "the wolf's lair," (Wolfschanze) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (now Poland). Scene shifts to the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin is seen speaking at a podium. A large outdoor audience, including some soldiers, is gathered to listen. Images showing the Soviet people responding to defend against the German Nazi invasion. Closeup of Soviet soldiers with shouldered weapons. The nearest is holding a PPSh-41 submachine gun. Closeups of Soviet women and men in military uniforms. Soviet citizens heading to enlist in the military. Soldiers marching loosely n a city street. Patriotic singing is heard in background. A formation of Soviet women marching. Some carry furled banners. Soviet women carrying simple farm implements, marching in a rural part of Russia and joining others who are working to prepare anti-tank ditches and barriers in the countryside. Views of hundreds of people working on this project. Weapons being provided to rural Soviet guerrillas who will operate behind enemy lines. Anti-aircraft guns being set up overlooking a harbor. Closeup of Soviet soldiers manipulating controls on a camouflaged anti-aircraft gun and others maneuvering a four-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun. Local farm family members on makeshift towers keeping watch over huge fields of wheat. Soviet farmers harvesting the wheat with scythes. An armed farmer shielding his eyes as he searches the skies for German airplanes. Closeup of a man cutting wheat with a scythe as women gather the sheaves behind him. Motorized harvesters at work in a field of wheat. Closeup of a woman operating one. Tractors used in harvesting. Women and children gleaning what remains behind in the harvested fields. Farmers driving their cattle East (away from advancing Germans). Evacuating Soviet people employ a scorched earth policy, burning their homes, barns, and anything that might be of value to advancing German forces. Views of burning houses. Soviet industrial enterprises working around the clock producing war materiel. Seen are petroleum facilities; a large plant expelling coke; coal pouring into a barge; men at work at a steel furnace; ribbons of hot steel moving out of rollers; a huge manufacturing plant in operation. Next, a Soviet Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank is seen moving across a field. Soviet Russian Polikarpov I-16 fighter planes in flight. A large formation of German Dornier DO 17 bombers in flight high overhead. Soviet forces retreating. Views of fallen German soldiers, fires burning, and remnants of a downed German bomber. German prisoners of war marching under guard and others surrendering with hands in the air. Closeups of some German prisoners. A Russian Petlyakov Pe-2 aircraft parked in snow with engines running. Fallen German soldiers lying in the snow along a roadway, in Winter of 1941-42. A Russian Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank maneuvering in the snow. Russian Bt-7 Light Cavalry Tanks proceeding toward the front in Springtime, 1942.
Damaged buildings and installations in Siberia, Russia during Russian Civil War (and World War I). A railway train bridge. Two small boats underway at river. A damaged tower. Men stand in front of the tower. A wrecked vehicle.