Stalin reviews children parading, dancing, and doing calisthenics in Red Square in Aug. 1939. General Timoshenko inspects Army units on Dec. 7, 1940; armed civilians and Red Army women pass in review. Trenches are dug and sandbag emplacements erected in Moscow in Oct. 1941. Artillery and barrage balloons are towed through the streets. Civilians enlist as guerilla fighters; weapons are issued them. Shows women and old men working in a munitions factory. Stalin addresses a vast crowd in Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941. Ski troops, cavalry, and Infantry units march from the square.
White tanks and trucks loaded with infantry. Units roll through a city. An armored locomotive and freight train is removed from a camouflaged shed. Trenches are dug in the snow, barbed wire strung, and trees chopped down to barricade a road. Antiaircraft guns fire at night. Shows brief industrial scenes. Cavalry units, (armor) armour, and infantry march away from Moscow. Shows a destroyed German bomber. Russian fighters and bombers being armed, and a bombing run over German positions. Artillery observers ascend in balloons; ranges are given; and artillery is loaded and fired. Cavalry and tank units move forward. Tanks advance, bombers take off, field guns are fired, and cavalry charges across a field. Paratroops board transports, jump, land, discard their parachutes, and crawl forward. Tanks roll forward. Low-flying German planes strafe the area; one tank is hit squarely. Ski troops move hurriedly into new positions. Ski and infantry troops charge into a town; houses are searched and prisoners taken; fighting continues in the streets; Russian wounded is treated.
Shows dead Russians, civilians and close-ups of German POW's. Shows masses of abandoned Ger. equipment. Russian Generals confer. Tanks move forward; bombers take off; and infantry assaults another town. Shows flaming grain stores near Mikhailov set afire by retreating Germans; aerial views of devastated Yipifan and Kiln; the rubbled homes of Chekhov and Tchaikovsky; views of the letters home before the war; and other demolished buildings Villagers embrace liberating Russian troops; refugees and guerilla units return to the village. Tanks and heavy artillery move over corduroy roads; German positions are bombed; Cossacks charge across an open field; and fighter planes take off. Shows Tolstoy's devastated home; a; ransacked hospital; and a field of German graves. Civilians inspect their ruined homes. Shows wounded children and frozen corpses of Russian civilians. Artillery is fired. Ski troops and tanks move forward passing abandoned German equipment.
Civilians cheer as infantry and armored units enter Kalinin. Medals are awarded soldiers near the front lines. Shows street fighting in Mozhaisk; truck transports roll into the city; newspapers are distributed; and Russian posters posted. Shows frozen corpses including those of women and children; the bodies of Russian civilians hanging from gallows; artillery firing; and troops marching through Moscow.
