Bitva za Moskvu

It has been 70 years since the Second World War began to be felt in the Soviet Union, and almost hit its great capital of Moscow.

In 1985, in time for the ruby jubilee of the final Allied victory in Europe and the 20th anniversary of Moscow's proclamation as a Hero City of the Soviet Union, the two episode movie series Battle of Moscow debuted in theaters across the USSR. Yuri Ozerov sure made Muscovites proud since he had at last made a great movie about the first days of the war, and the battles for the defense of Brest Fortress, of Kiev and of Russia's greatest city and capital, Moscow.

The first episode chronicles the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941 and of the bravery and valor shown by the Red Army in the Brest Fortess, Yelnya and Kiev. The second episode is focused on the battles for Moscow itself. The best parts of it is the November 7 parade at Red Square where Yakov Tripolski reminds us of Joseph Stalin's address to the Soviet people and armed forces telling them to fight bravery against the German fascists, how Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (acted well here by Irina Shemliova) became a heroine partisan and later posthumously became the 1st lady partisan Hero of the Soviet Union, and of the heroism of the 8th Rifle Division led by its commander Ivan Panfilov (Konstanin Stepankov) and its political commissar acted here by Aleksandr Voevodin against the German Army, and later documents the later counterattack led by General of the Army Georgy Zhukov (Mikhail Ulyanov) of the entire Red Army and Red Air Forces, composed of military academy and school cadets, cavalry forces including that of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps commanded by General Lev Dovator (Lev Pregunov), citizen partisans, regular infantry and Siberian riflemen and ski soldiers aided by fighters, interceptors, attack aircraft and bombers of the Red Air Forces and the Red Army Air Defense Forces, plus artillery and the armored and motorized infantry units.

The end scenes of part 2 of the 2nd episode with a montage of Moscow 44 years after that battle set to the movie theme song by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronranov and sung perfectly by Lev Leshchenko truly gets me every time, for this reminds us of the many lives lost in the city's defense. And speaking of the musical score, it was also great and fitting to the action (although it was mostly shot at Moscow and in Czechoslovakia, most especially the battle scenes, and some scenes were shot in Vietnam).

Indeed, 70 years have passed, but the spirit of Moscow's defenders who showed the world how to fight against the forces of fascism truly live on in our hearts. Moscow is truly indeed a Hero City of Russia and the battles for it an example of the brute force and effects of all-out war against the forces of evil.

Eternal glory to all these brave defenders of Moscow, who died for us to live in freedom and peace, and gave us a free and great world on which we stand against evil. I'll always think of them everyday and when I soon go to Moscow's Eternal Flame... I'll remember them all.

Obviously this is propaganda, but it would have been somewhat bearable (with much assistance from my capuchin monkey on the FFWD wheel) at about 125% playback speed, if not for the obnoxious voice-over which is used for all the German-spoken dialog.

Stalin is portrayed as the coolest customer you ever encountered -- understandable, as to portray the fellow otherwise would have earned a ticket to the coldest and remotest gulag. So that aspect does offer some laughs and light entertainment, especially if in good company over some beers and other novelties.

Oh, and Stalin loved that old pipe of his, a nasty habit... there, minimum character limit met.

Sheer length of this one (6 hrs) makes it somewhat awkward for 'common' movie audience. This epic saga tells of Nazi campaign to capture Moscow, and heroic defenders trying to protect Mother Russia. Movie presents historical, military data about strategic moves, plans, then there are political events, sequences from general HQ's (rather naive acting here), and finally classic war-movie short stories about actual heroes of the Battle.

So basically, you get to see what happened, where, why and how it happened. Since its old movie, there is a lot of naive moments, especially when Russian actor is barking commands in German, which is in turn dubbed by bad acting of Russian narrator, translating what did the German say. I mean, they could've used either Russian language for German officers, or simply put subtitles...

Great movie!

Since the preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union started, the capture of Moscow was one of the key military and political objectives of Germany. The invasion (Operation Barbarossa) began on the 22nd of June 1941, and the second phase was Operation Typhoon, the German offensive on Moscow, which was launched in the first days of October 1941. For this operation the Wehrmacht had concentrated over a million soldiers, 1700 tanks and 14,000 guns and mortars.

The soviet film ''Battle for Moscow'' was made in 1985, on the occasion of the forty year anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe. The opening sequence points out that the movie involves only historical facts, only real heroes who actually existed, and from the beginning of the movie it's clear that it is conceived as a history lesson, indeed a film monument to the defenders of Moscow, their amazing efforts and enormous heroism.

The movie raises a very interesting question - about the difference between the tactical and strategic level of analysis and policy-making, the difference between winning a battle and winning the war. It is the fact that the Soviets deliberately sacrificed hundreds of thousands to wear out the German strategic initiative and buy time, the few weeks that they lacked, especially in October and November of 1941. This time, for which they paid with so much blood, was the time needed to prepare the defense, transport fresh troops from the east, evacuate the industry, and it played a very important role in the outcome of the war. However, this movie also presents lots of casualties that could have been avoided as conscious, necessary and inevitable, especially with regard to the disastrous Soviet defeats in the Battle of Kiev in September 1941, or the collapse of huge Red Army forces in Minsk in July 1941. Despite these disappointing rationalizations, the movie is very interesting, informative and educational. Based on actual events.

Havin read several books on the attack of the Soviet Union I was eager to watch the movie. I was seriously disappointed. They didn't get nothing right.

To begin with some historical facts: Stalin wasn't the cool headed strategist as he is portrayed here.

First he he denied that his Country was under attack even as a high number of reports of German assaults reached his Headquarter. In his paranoia he was convinced that this was a plot of his own Generals. As he finally realized what was going on, he suffered a breakdown and was not available for his officers for couple of days.

The result was that Russian defenders didn't get any orders and where therefore paralyzed. In addition Stalin had "cleansed" the Military from all able men, so army was weak and without a leader, who was able to organize a counter attack. The Movie somehow failed to mention that.

There might have been heroic efforts to stop the German attackers here and there, as it was emphasized in the movie, but these proved useless against the well planned German assault.

In addition there is terrible acting, bad special effects, a campy Hitler, strange German Tanks that resemble the Tiger Tank which wasn't build in 41 and German soldiers constantly running away from the brave Russians.

In other words: the movie is typical propaganda crap. Don't watch this, if you are interested in military history or you want to see cool tank battles and firefights. In this respects the movie offers nothing.