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00:00The End
00:30Oh, my God.
01:00This is a film about that scale and grain.
01:29This is a film about that military achievement.
01:35This is a film about a people who for all time shattered the legend of Nazi invincibility.
01:42This is a film about victory and defeat.
01:48German victory and German defeat.
01:54This is the battle for Russia.
01:58A battle that has been going on for centuries.
02:02A battle that fills the pages of Russian history.
02:061242.
02:10The German order of Teutonic Knights had invaded northeastern Russia and occupied the old city of Peskov.
02:20Under the leadership of their Grand Master, Bon Bon, they threatened to enslave the whole population of that area, including the capital, Novgorod.
02:42In their hour of peril, the Russian people turned for leadership to their prince, Alexander Nevsky.
03:00And on April the 5th, 1242, on Lake Papers, the Russians met the might of the German forces.
03:16They weren't as well equipped or as well organized.
03:38But in their hearts was a flaming courage.
03:46A flame so fierce that it pierced the German armor.
03:50The victory they won fills a bright page of Russian history.
04:041704.
04:06And another conquering army marched across Russian land.
04:10This time under Charles XII of Sweden.
04:14And again the Russians fought for their country.
04:18Led by their emperor, Peter the Great, after five long years of war, they defeated the Swedes in the historic Battle of Kotava.
04:38The invading Swedish armies were crushed and forever driven out of Russia.
04:421812.
04:50Napoleon and his armies had blazed their triumphant way across Europe and were marching on Moscow.
04:56The conquering armies entered the city, but they entered a city in flames.
05:02Even in that day, Russian earth was scorched earth to an invader.
05:08And once again the invader was forced to start the long march on the road back out of Russia.
05:141914.
05:16And another German army.
05:18And another German army.
05:20This time under Kaiser Wilhelm set out to conquer Russia.
05:32This time the Russian people under the regime of the Tsar were not only fighting German guns.
05:38But oppression and corruption in their own country.
05:44And only the ultimate collapse of Imperial Germany saved Russia from losing the Ukraine and the Crimea.
05:52Which the Germans had occupied in 1918.
05:54Yes, for 700 years the Russian people have had to fight.
06:00To defend their land against would-be conquers.
06:04Why?
06:06Why have all these attempts been made to conquer Russia?
06:10Perhaps Russia itself can provide the answer.
06:16Here it is.
06:17One-sixth of the Earth's surface.
06:20Reaching from east to west nearly halfway around the world.
06:23And southwards from the North Pole to the borders of India.
06:27One country of nine million square miles.
06:31That's our own country three times over.
06:34Or all of North America and a million square miles to boot.
06:38The sun never sets on Russia.
06:41When it is dusk on its western borders facing Europe,
06:45it is already dawn on its eastern borders facing the Pacific.
06:50That's Russia.
06:55Or to be correct, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.
07:00Deep in its mountains lie thick, rich veins of gold and silver.
07:05Below ground lie enormous deposits of copper, tin, manganese and nickel.
07:11Chromium and radium.
07:13Sulfur and magnesium.
07:15Russia is rich in raw materials.
07:18Her forests cover millions upon millions of acres.
07:21One-fourth of all the lumber reserve in the world belongs to Russia.
07:26And as for fuel, there's coal, ton upon ton.
07:32And more important, there's also oil.
07:35213 million barrels a year of it.
07:39Black gold flowing from the Earth that contains 55% of the world's oil.
07:45What else?
07:47Iron?
07:48Russia has better than 10 billion tons.
07:51That can make a lot of steel before it's done.
07:54Yes, Russia is rich.
07:56Discover millions upon millions of acres.
07:59The rich, black Earth that, besides giving forth oil and coal,
08:03will also grow everything from sunflowers to lotus.
08:07The tea that people drink in such huge quantities.
08:11And the tobacco that they smoke.
08:13Cotton grows here too.
08:163,800,000 bales a year.
08:19And sugar.
08:21And on the pasture land, the animals grow fat for food and wool for clothing.
08:27While on the warm plains, the fields of grain stretch as far as the eye can reach.
08:32Corn, oats, hops, rye, and don't forget wheat.
08:38One third of the world's best.
08:41Yes, Russia is very rich.
08:44For it has not only raw materials and the products of its soil.
08:48Russia is also people.
08:57193 million people.
09:00People of every race, color, and free.
09:10People coming from the many different republics that comprise the Soviet Union.
09:15People speaking more than a hundred different languages.
09:18But all citizens of one country.
09:21They are the great Russians.
09:22The descendants of the first settlers of this vast area.
09:24And for a thousand years, its main population.
09:28Or Cossacks.
09:29The famous horsemen from the open plains of the Don River Valley.
09:34Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:35Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:37Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:38Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:39Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:40Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:41Or whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:42Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:43Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:44Whether they come from the southwest, the Ukraine.
09:45Or if they live and their dominance to respect theura.
09:47The
09:49symbolic soldiers.
09:49Or if they come from the eastern Müler.
09:50Portiai strata.
09:51Tell them to the east.
09:52Maybe it's probably the шemes for the last hai.
09:53Or if he were�lluls.
09:54Then they come from the south.
09:55Or if he wereTs hard to see.
09:56Or is it a Forosia.
09:58Very much.
09:59Or adults.
10:00That's what they came from the southwest, the Ukraine.
10:04Here in the breadbasket of the Soviet Union live the little Russians, better known as
10:19Ukrainians, and beside them the Moldavia and Bessaravia, or if they come from the far
10:26south between the Caspian and Black Sea, where we find the Armenians and the Georgians, the
10:41English, the Czechs, rugged as the high peaks of their native Caucasian mountains.
10:56Whether they are Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyz from the Persian and Indian frontiers, or Mongols,
11:26the Bashkirs, the Turco-Tartars, the Buryats, the Yakuts, from far beyond the Ural mountains,
11:41or the people of the ice country, hunters like the Zauns, or settlers like the Laplanders.
11:50Whether they come from the pioneering wilderness of the far north, or from a great city like
11:57their capital, Moscow, where the ancient buildings of an ancient civilization stand beside the
12:06modern structures of a modern civilization, where the old Russian droshka still competes
12:13with the modern limousine.
12:20Whether they work in factories or as soldiers, whether they are bricklayers or traffic cops,
12:36sailors or sailors or riveters, school children or farmers, nurses or engineers, window washers or sales girls,
12:49housewives or postal clerks, radio announcers or stewardesses, scientists or typists, musicians or ballerinas.
13:01Regardless of what they do or where they live, they all have one thing in common, love of their soil.
13:18That is Russia. Size, the largest country in the world. Raw materials, unlimited. Manpower, 193 million.
13:41These are the three reasons why every conqueror in history has wanted Russia.
13:45And these are the reasons why the modern would-be conqueror wrote,
13:49When we speak of new territory, we must think of Russia.
13:53Destiny itself points the way there.
13:56Yes, as we have seen, Germany's spirit of aggression was handed down from generation to generation.
14:02And now, in Hitler's Germany, the dream was world conquest.
14:07To such a dream, there could be only one answer, collective security.
14:13So with this objective, in 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations.
14:19Again and again before the League, its representatives urged binding agreements to support by collective action any nation submitted to attack.
14:28The state I represent entered the League with the sole purpose of the maintenance of indivisible peace.
14:35The League of Nations is still strong enough by its collective action to avert or arrest aggression.
14:41There is no room for bargaining or compromise.
14:44But while some members of the League were pleading vainly for the use of collective force to stop aggression,
14:51the world saw other members, Germany, Italy, Japan, withdraw from the League to follow the path of aggression.
15:00Then Hitler invaded Austria, Czechoslovakia, and in 1939, Poland, first step on the road to Russia.
15:15But his eastward march was interrupted by France and Britain declaring war.
15:23So the Germans were forced to turn west.
15:26And in 1940, as we have seen, wiped the last opposition from Western Europe.
15:32And while the Nazis were unsuccessfully trying to beat Britain to her knees,
15:37the German generals were already planning to resume the interrupted Eastern blitz.
15:42The road to Russia was now open.
15:45But before that attack, preliminary steps were necessary.
15:48South and east of Germany are Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece.
15:55And Hungary had grain, rich fields of it.
15:59Grain too good for Hungarians when German soldiers have such good appetites.
16:04Hungary had bauxite.
16:06Bauxite makes aluminum, and aluminum makes planes.
16:10And Hungary had an army.
16:12Not the battle-trained German army, but good enough to throw against Russian guns.
16:17Romania had not only grain, but oil.
16:20And Hitler needed every last drop of it to power his war machine.
16:26Romania also had men.
16:28More slave labor.
16:30More cannon fodder for the attack on Russians.
16:33And most important, Romania and Hungary both had Russian frontiers.
16:38And Hitler wanted those frontiers in the hands of German generals.
16:43Bulgaria didn't have a Russian frontier.
16:46But it did have bases.
16:48Bases on the Black Sea.
16:51Bases for German submarines to prey on Russian shipping.
16:55By the spring of 1941, the reactionary governments of Hungary, under the dictatorship of Admiral Horthy.
17:03Of Romania, governed by young King Michael, who was only a tool in the hands of Hitler's puppet, General Antonescu.
17:12And of Bulgaria, ruled by King Boris, always a disciple of German imperialism.
17:19All had sold their countries out to Hitler.
17:22Now, threatened by a revolt of their people, they were only too glad to be protected by Hitler's army.
17:29So by March of 1941, German armies were in occupation of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
17:39That still left Yugoslavia and Greece.
17:42So long as they remained unoccupied territory, they remained the route for a possible allied counter-invasion.
17:48At one of their regular meetings, Hitler had assigned the job of conquering Greece to his stooge, Mussolini.
17:54The stooge was delighted.
17:56Here was his chance to prove to his people that he too was a consulate.
18:00But he was wrong.
18:03Perhaps the uniforms fooled him.
18:06Something did.
18:07For after the fascist legions had blitzed on one cylinder this far into Greece, the Greeks,
18:12in a brilliantly conducted mountain campaign, drove the Italians back and invaded Albania.
18:19Hitler was enraged.
18:21The failure of his stooge to protect his southern flank was delaying the attack on Russia.
18:26He sent a final ultimatum.
18:28For the Yugoslavs and Greeks, it was surrender, forever.
18:33But the Yugoslavs and Greeks come from a long line of fighting men.
18:38Nazi slavery didn't appeal to them.
18:40At dawn on April 6th, German bombs told the Yugoslavians they were at war with Germany.
18:50The Nazis and Italians launched a powerful and coordinated attack from all their bases.
18:55Supported by virtually unopposed aerial bombardment.
19:09The conclusion was inevitable.
19:11Although resistance was determined, the Yugoslav army was cut up into many small segments and captured.
19:17the Yugoslav army was cut up into many small segments and captured.
19:21The war in Greece also began on April 6.
19:24There, in spite of fierce and valiant resistance by the Greeks
19:28and the British who had come to their aid,
19:31the Germans, overwhelmingly superior in both numbers and equipment,
19:35forced their way past the Vestritza River,
19:38Mount Olympus, the famous passage of Thermopylae.
19:42And by the end of April, the swastika flew over the ancient city of Athens.
19:47The conquest of the Balkans was now complete.
19:51The whole force of Nazi might could now be turned loose on Russians.
19:56There was no time to wait, for time was Russia's weapon.
20:01Their industry, so recently built and which, like our own,
20:06were designed for the ways of peace, were converted for war.
20:10Instead of steel for plows and tools, steel for shells and guns,
20:16they knew their industry could never produce enough to equip them adequately
20:20for the Titanic struggle.
20:22But what they could produce, they would.
20:25At the same time, the army began to grow.
20:30More and more men were called up to be trained,
20:33hard, thrilled, prepared to defend their land.
20:38With the conquest of the Balkans, the Nazis had a solid front from the Black Sea to the Balkans.
20:52But the Russians had built themselves a buffer to take some of the steam out of the Nazi punch,
20:57no matter where it lands.
20:58But where would it land?
21:00When the blow came, it was from five different directions.
21:05And from the north, one extra, just for luck.
21:08That was the big day.
21:10A storm broke nearly 200 Axis divisions.
21:18More than two million men plunged into a front 2,000 miles long,
21:23reaching from the White Sea to the Black.
21:25Their aim, the annihilation of the Red Army
21:28in a decisive battle on the frontier.
21:31The offensive started along the whole length of the front,
21:42but was concentrated on three main objectives.
21:45Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
21:51In the first 30 days, von Lieb's forces drove to within 125 miles of Leningrad,
21:56while the Finns under Mannerheim, supported by the Germans,
22:00began a drive from the north to encircle the city.
22:03In the center, von Bock's army plunged 480 miles into Soviet territory.
22:09One Russian city after the other was overrun by the invaders.
22:13And on July 17th, they captured the first main objective, Smolensk, regarded as the key to Moscow.
22:22Simultaneously, in the south, von Rundstedt's force was cut deep into the Ukraine.
22:28This was blitzkrieg at its best.
22:31The world gave Russia another six weeks, and the Germans issued a communique.
22:37The issue in the east has already been settled.
22:40Svolensk is the last port on the road to Moscow.
22:44But then a strange thing happened.
22:46For the first time since the mighty German army started its career of blitz,
22:50smashing into submission one European country after the other.
22:53That same German army came up against a country that did not submit.
22:58Despite the fact that Hitler's army swept deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union,
23:03and by October the 15th stood practically within the shadows of the Kremlin.
23:07Despite the fact that the Soviet government and all foreign missions
23:16were forced to move to Kribischew, 700 miles to the east.
23:23Despite Hitler's triumphs and spar�ery of war,
23:27possible to behave the culture.
23:32hitler's triumphant pronouncement i can say that this enemy is already broken and will never rise
23:37again despite the fact that by december 500 000 square miles of russian territory an area equal
23:45to the entire middle western united states had fallen to the invaders yes despite russia's loss
23:53of her best agricultural areas her most thoroughly developed industrial plants millions of her people
24:01thousands of her tanks and her planes despite everything those six weeks had lengthened into
24:07nearly six months and the dread nazi blitz had spluttered stumbled and finally died what had
24:16happened here let's try to analyze it first in this titanic struggle not only two armies but two
24:25fighting methods and two strategies came face to face the german strategy was based on the
24:32well-tried kyle and kessel or wedge and trap maneuver one wedge would be driven deep into the enemy
24:38territory to hook up with another spearhead driven through to meet it in the trap thus formed the
24:45victim would be pocketed for annihilation the german plan in every campaign was to seek a decisive battle
24:52at the moment of invasion a single blow must destroy the enemy without regard for losses a gigantic all-destroying
25:00blow remember the campaigns you have already seen in these films poland the poles concentrated on their
25:09borders the blitz broke through 18 days finished poland france the allied strength on the borders the
25:19breakthrough at sedan and the issue of france was settled the balkans the yugoslavians rushed to the
25:26border the breakthrough pain and in 12 days yugoslavia was gone the germans planned the same blitz against the
25:34russians but the russians had developed their own strategy one to take full advantage of the vast area
25:41of their land the russians strategy was a defense in depth line after line far back into the interior
25:49and when the nazi wedge struck the first line would bend with it until it became part of the second
25:56again the wedge would strike again the segment would be lost but again the line would bend until it became
26:05part of the third so the deeper the germans plowed into russian soil the stronger their opposition
26:13until finally they faced an unshatterable wall and were robbed of their chance to hit that old
26:19destroying blow they had counted off the result the germans conquered land and lost the campaign
26:27but the russian tactics kept the main bulk of their armies intact and made a long war inevitable
26:33instead of that quick decision the germans sought and the russians had other tactics that threw the
26:39germans for a loss germany had developed blitz warfare mechanized warfare armies on wheels juggernauts
26:48to crush everything before them but the russians found a way to drag them out of their traveling fortresses they
26:56used their cities as strongholds and made the blitz come to them down alleys
27:09the more a city was bombed the more impassable it became to the german panzers
27:14they made the names of these russian cities as familiar to us as the names of towns in the next
27:20county rostov parkour kiev kursi smolenni city after city standing in the path of the nazi blitz
27:32the red army have found a way to make their cities of great strategic importance odessa
27:39scene of an heroic siege of more than two months held up the whole nazi thrust into the crimea
27:48sevastopol which resisted every attempt of the germans to break through
27:56here for eight and a half long months the russians fought for the town inch by inch
28:02barring the germans from the great black sea naval base located there and finally when the germans
28:09entered the town each district was defended street by street
28:13each street house by house
28:30each house room by room
28:32the russians knew their cities would be demolished but their objective was not to save cities
28:47but to destroy germans a high price to pay for a copy of mine camp
28:53so the germans were forced out of their armored shells to fight and to die in the hand-to-hand combat
29:01they thought they had abolished there was another item the germans had overlooked they overlooked people
29:07and generals may win campaigns but people win wars and on that fatal june 22nd when the russian
29:18people first learned of the invasion of their country their grim faces told of their determination
29:25to fight and to die but never to surrender they knew this wasn't a question of who occupied
29:33what piece of land this was a question of life or death this war is not an ordinary war it is the war of
29:44the entire russian people not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads but to aid all people
29:51groaning under the yoke of fascism so the alarm was spread to factory and farm and from every russian
30:00town and village men poured forth to answer the call from now on one thing mattered and one thing only
30:10victory total war meant total mobilization not war just for soldiers but war for everyone young or old
30:20male or female made no difference age had nothing to do with it if you were only 12 years old it was
30:28work for 12 year olds to do sex had nothing to do with it if you could hold a rifle you were a soldier
30:37if you could turn a lathe you were a soldier if you could harvest the fields you were a soldier
30:43if you could handle a locomotive or pilot a ship or guide a tractor you were still a soldier
30:49for everything you did was part of that total war nothing that the enemy could use was left behind
30:57not a yard of wire or a pound of iron not an acre of wheat or a head of cattle
31:04when the old men stood watch over the fields ready to give the word to burn of the first sight of the enemy
31:10that meant the factory the plants the oil depots planes claimed them all the giant dam of meat
31:27destroyed into which have been poured not only steel and concrete but five long years of russian toil and
31:34russian sweat to yield the miracle of electricity to the farms and people of the ukraine now rather
31:42than let the power it generated fall to the enemy they destroyed it
31:50scorched earth the land they had lived on and worked on their forests their fields their farms
31:59they surrendered them to the flames but not to the invaders that was the scorched earth
32:09and for action behind the german lines a new army was formed an army without uniforms whose home was the
32:17forest whose front was the enemy's rear a guerrilla army a minimum of glory and a maximum of determination
32:29their achievements were seldom reported look well at these faces you will never see them again in the
32:36ranks of war prisoners or read their names over heroes graves ahead of them lay nothing but the rope from
32:43the hall but they stayed behind and went on fighting their only goal was merciless destruction destruction of
32:52communication lines to supply the invaders themselves their weapons were dynamite in the terror of surprise
33:08they asked for no mercy and they gave them
33:10this is the gorilla army this the scorched earth this the red army these its leaders these are the reasons
33:27why although the germans conquered land five hundred thousand square miles of it it was just land
33:36barren land scorched land these are the reasons why after five and a half months of blitz warfare
33:44after coming within sight of their goal the germans were stopped at the very gates of moscow
33:51these are the reasons why although hitler had sworn that before december the swastika would fly from the
33:57kremlin towers december had come but it wasn't the swastika that flew over the russian capital
34:04and it wasn't the nazi conquerors who marched through the streets of the ancient city but fresh reserves of the red army
34:21the
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34:44The End
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