Narrator this is a film about that scale and grandeur. This is a film about that military achievement. This is a film about a people, who for all times shattered the , not the instability. This is a film about victory and defeat. Victory, and german defeat. This is the battle for russia, a battle that has been going on for centuries, a battle that filled the pages of russian history. 1242. The german order of teutonic knights have invaded Northeastern Russia and occupied the old city. Narrator under the leadership of their grand master, they try they threatened to enslave the whole population of that area, including the capital novgorod. , in their hour of peril, the russian people turn to their prince, alexander nevsky. On april the 5th, 1242 on lake peipus, the russians met the the russians met the might of the german forces. They werent as well equipped or as well organized. But in their hearts was a flaming courage, a flame so fierce that it pierced the german army. The victory they won filled a bright page of russian history. 1704, and another conquering army marched across russian land. This time it was charles the 12th of sweden. And again, the russians fought for their country. Led by their Emperor Peter the great after five long years of war, they defeated the swedes in the historic battle of poltava. The invading swedish army were crushed and forever driven out of russia. 1812. Napoleon and his army have laid their triumphant way across europe, and were marching toward moscow. The conquering armies entered the city, but they entered a city in flames. Even in that day, russians russian earth was scorched earth when it was invaded and , they were forced to march back out of russia. 1914, and another german army. This time under Kaiser Wilhelm set to conquer. Set out to conquer russia. This time, the russian people under the regime of the czar were not only fighting german guns, but a pressure of corruption in their own country. Only the collapse of imperial germany saved russia from losing the ukraine and the crimea, which the germans had occupied in 1918. Yes, for 700 years, the russian people have had to fight and defend their land against wouldbe conquerors. Why . Why are all these attempts made to conquer russia . Perhaps russia itself can provide the answers. One sixth of16 the earth surface reaching from east to west nearly halfway around the world and southward to the borders of india. One country of 9 million square miles. That is our own country three times over, all of america and a million square miles to boot. The sun never sets on russia. On its western force borders facing europe, it is already dawn on its eastern borders facing the pacific. That is russia, or to be correct, the union of soviet socialist republics. Deep in its mountains lie rich veins of silver and gold. Below ground lie enormous amount of copper, manganese, nickel, sulfur and magnesium. Russia is rich in Raw Materials. The forests cover millions upon millions of acres. One fourth of the lumber reserves belong to russia. Fuel, there is cold coal, ton upon on. And there is oil. 213 Million Barrels a year. Black gold flowing from the earth that contains 55 of the worlds oil. What else . Iron . Russia has better than 10 million tons. That can make a lot of steel before it is done. Yes, russia is rich. Her farms cover millions upon millions of acres. The rich, black earth giving forth oil and coal also grow everything from sunflowers to lettuce. The tea people drink and the tobacco they smoke. Cotton grows here, too. 318,000 bales a year and sugar. And on the path, the animals grow fat for food and wool for clothing. While on the warm plains, fields of grain stretch as far as i can reach. Corn, oats, hops, rise and dont forget wheat, one third of the worlds best. Yes, russia is very rich. It has a lot of Raw Materials and the products for oil, it is also peopled. 193 million people. People of every race, color, and creed. People coming from the many different republics who comprise the soviet union. People speaking more than 100 different languages, but all citizens of one country. Whether they are the great russians, the descendents of the first settlers of this vast area and for a thousand years its , main population or cossacks, the famous sportsmen from the valley. Whether they come from southwest in the ukraine here in the breadbasket of the soviet union lives the little russia better known as ukraine, and moldavia and thesaravia. Or if they come from the far south, between the caspian and black sea where we find the armenians and the georgians, the english the , people rugged as the high peaks as their mountains. Whether they are uzbecks, turkmens, kaegis, mongols turkotartars, boriayats, from far beyond the euro mountains. Whether people of the ice country, hunters like the zals , or settlers like the laplanders, whether they come from a pioneering wilderness of the far north or from the great , city like the capital moscow, where the ancient buildings of an ancient civilization stand beside the modern structures of a modern civilization where the old russian drashka still competes with the modern limousine whether they work in factories , or as soldiers, whether they bricklayers, or traffic cops, sailors or riveters, schoolchildren, or farmers, nurses or engineers, window washers or sales girls, housewives or postal clerks, radio announcers or stewardesses, scientists or typists, musicians or ballerinas [ waltz of the flowers ] regardless of what they do, or where they live, theyll have one thing in common, love of their country. That is russia. Size the largest country in the world. Raw materials unlimited. , manpower, 193 million. These are the three reasons why every conqueror in history has wanted russia, and these are the reasons why the modern wouldbe conqueror wrote when we speak of new territory, we must speak of russia. Narrator yes, as we have seen, it has stood without a doubt from hit generation to generation, and now in hitlers germany, the dream was world conquest. Such a dream, there could be only one answer, selective security. So with this objective in 1934, the soviet union joined the league of nations. Again and again, before the league, its representatives urged funding agreements to support a collective action any nation submitted to attack. Narrator but while some members of the league were pleading for the use of collective force to stop aggression the world saw , other members, germany, italy, japan withdraw from the league to follow the path of aggression. Manchuria, ethiopia, then hitlers invaded austria, czechoslovakia, and in 1939, poland. One step from the road to russia, but its eastward march was interrupted by france and britain they were stopped, declaring war. The germans were first to turn west, and in 1940 as we have seen, like the last opposition from western europe. And while the nazis were trying were unsuccessfully trying to bring britain to her knees, the german generals were already planning to resume the interrupt of eastern conquest. The road to russia was now open. But before that attack, preliminary steps were necessary. South and east of germany are hungary, romania, yugoslavia and greece. And hungary had grain, rich fields of it. Grain too good for hungarians when german soldiers have such good appetites. They have aluminum, which makes planes. Hungary had an army, not the battle trained german army, but good enough to throw against russian guns. Romania had not only grain but oil, and hitler needed every last drop of it to power his war machine. Romania also had men, more slave labor, more cannon fodder for the attacks on russia. And most importantly, romania had russian frontiers, and hitler wanted those in the hands of german generals. Bulgaria did not have a russian frontier, but it did have aces bases on the black sea, bases to pray on german shipping. By the spring of the reactionary 1941, governments of hungary, under the dictatorship of an admiral, of romania, governed by young king michael, who was only a tool in the hands of hitlers puppet, general enescu, and of bulgaria, all sold their countries out to hitler. Now threatened by a revolt of , their people, they were only too glad to be protected by hitlers army. So by march 1941, german armies were in occupation of hungary, romania, bulgaria. That still left yugoslavia and greece. So long as they remained unoccupied territories, there remained the possible route for allied cooperation. Four a counterpart allied invasion. But he tried to bring greece to his stooge, mussolini. The stooge was delighted. Here was his chance to prove to the people he too was a conqueror. But he was wrong. Perhaps uniforms fooled him. Something did, for after the fascist legions went this far into greece, the greeks, in a brilliantly conducted campaign, drove the italians back and invaded albania. Hitler was enraged. For failure of his stooge to protect his southern flank to protect southern russia. He sent a final ultimatum to the yugoslavs and greeks to surrender or else. But the yugoslavs and greeks come from a long line of fighting men. Nazi slavery did not appeal to them. [planes crashing] at dawn on april 6, german bonds told yugoslavias they were at war with germany. The nazis and italians launched a powerful and coordinated bases from all naval all of their beaches. The conclusion was inevitable. No more resistance was determined. The Yugoslav Army was cut up and captured. The war in greece also began april 6. There, in spite of valiant resistance by the greeks, and the british would come to their aid, a german, overwhelmingly superior in both numbers and equipment forced their way , through the river, mount olympus, the famous passage, and by the end of a swastika flew april, over the ancient city of athens. A conquest of the balkans was now complete. The nazi might could now be turned loose on russia. There was no time to wait. But time was russias weapon. Their industry so recently ownt in which, like our designed for the reign of peace , but converted for war. , plows and tools, steel for guns and shells. They knew their industry could never produce enough for the titanic struggle, but what they could produce, they would. At the same time, the army began to grow. More and more men were called up to be trained, hardened, grilled, prepared to defend their land. It was the conquest of the balkans, the nazis had a solid front from the black sea to the baltic but the russians would , try to take steam out of the nasty punch the matter where it landed but where would it land . Came, it was from five different directions. From the north. That was the big day. A storm broke nearly 200 axis divisions. 200 than 2 million men , miles long reaching from the white sea to the black. Their aim, the annihilation of the red army and the sites of battle on the frontier. [explosions] the offensive started along the whole length of the front that was concentrated on three Main Objectives leningrad, moscow, and kiev, the capital of the ukraine. And the first 30 days, the forces joke within 125 miles of leningrad, while they finns while the finns under mannerheim, supported by the germans, drove from the north to encircle the city. In the center, the army plunged 480 miles into soviet territory. One russian city after another was overrun by the invaders. And on they captured the first y 17, Main Objective smolensk, regarded as the key to moscow. Simultaneously in the south, more forces cut deep into the ukraine. This was blitzkrieg at its best. The world gave russia another six weeks, and the germans issued a communique. The issue in the east has been settled. Narrator but then, a strange thing happened. For the First Time Since the mighty german army started its career of blitz, smashing one european country after another, that same german army came up against the country that did not submit. Despite the fact that hitlers army swept deeper and deeper into the soviet union, and by october the still packed within 15th, the shadows of the kremlin, despite the fact the soviet government and all Foreign Missions were forced to move to 700 miles to the east, despite hitlers triumphant pronouncement, i can say this enemy is already broken and will never rise again. December 5000t by , square miles of russian territory, and area equal to the states had fallen to the invaders. Yet despite this loss of , industrial plants, millions of her people, thousands of her tanks and her planes, despite everything, those six weeks had lengthened into nearly six months, and the dread nazi blitz had spluttered, stumbled and finally died. What had happened here . Lets try to analyze it. First, in this titanic struggle, not only two armies or two fighting methods or two strategies came facetoface. The german strategy was based from the trap maneuver. It one was to go deep into the enemy territory, to hook up with another spearhead to meet it. In the trap bus formed. The victim would be pocketed for annihilation. The german plan in every campaign was to sink decisive battle at the moment of invasion. A single blow despite the enemy. A gigantic all destroying below. Narrator remember the campaigns you have already seen in these films poland, the polls concentrated on their borders, the blitz broke through. 18 days finished poland. France, the allied strength on the borders, the breakthrough of this, the issue of france was settled. The balkans, the yugoslavians rushed to the border, the breakthrough came, and in 12 days, yugoslavia was gone. The germans planned the same blitz against the russians, but the russians develop their own strategy. One to develop to take full advantage of the vast area of their land. This was line after line, far back into the interior. And when the nazi wedge struck, the first line would then read with it until it became part of the second. Again the wedge would strike, again the segment would be lost, but again the line would , bend until it became part of the third. So the deeper the germans plowed into russian soil, the stronger their opposition until finally they faced an unshatterable wall. And were robbed at their chance to get their final blow. It as a result the germans , conquered land but lost the campaign. To the russian tactics main bulk of their armies intact and made the long war inevitable is that of that quick decision the germans thought. But the russians had another tactic that through the germans for a lost. Germany had developed mechanized warfare, armies on wheels, juggernauts to crush everything before them. But the russians found a way to drag them out of their traveling fortresses. They used their cities as strongholds and made the blitz , come to them down alleys. The more a city was bombed, the more impassable it became for the german panzers. They named these cities familiar to us, towns like kiev, smolensk, city after city standing in the path of the nasty blitz. They found a way to make cities strategic importance. Odessa, the scene of the heroic siege of more than two months that held up the whole nazi quest into the crimea. They resisted every attempt of the germans to break through. Here for 8. 5 long months the , russians fought for the town. Inch by inch, barring the germans from the great black sea naval base located there. Finally, when the germans entered the town, each district was defended street by street. Each street, house by house. Each house, room by room. The russians knew their cities would be demolished but their objective was not to save cities, but to destroy germans a high price to pay for the copy of mein kampf. They died in the handtohand combat they thought they had abolished. They overlooked people. Generals may win campaigns but people win wars. On that fatal june 22, when the russian people first learned of the invasion of their country, their grim faces told of their determination to fight and to die but never to surrender. They knew this was not a question of who occupied what piece of land. This was a question of life or death. This war is not an ordinary war. It is a war of the entire russian people. Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of fascism. So the alarm was spread from every russian town and village. Men answered the call. From now on, one thing mattered and one thing only victory. Total war meant total mobilization. Not just war for soldiers but war for everyone. Young or old. Male or female. It made no difference. Age had nothing to do with it. If you were only 12 years old, there were was work for 12yearolds to do. Sex had nothing to do with it. If you could turn a lathe you were a soldier. If you could harvest the fields, you were a soldier. If you could pilot a locomotive or pilot a ship, you were still a soldier. Everything you did was part of the total war. Nothing the enemy could use was left behind. Not a yard of wire or a pound of iron. Not an acre of wheat or a head of cattle. And the old men stood watch over the fields. Ready to give the word to burn at first sight of the enemy. Scorched earth. What cannot be withdrawn must be destroyed. That meant the factories. The plants. The oil depots. The planes. The giant dam. Into which had been poured with steel and concrete but also five long years of russian toil and sweat yielding the miracle of electricity to the people of ukraine. Rather than let the power it generated fall to the enemy, they destroy it. Scorched earth. The land they had lived on, worked on, their forests, their fields, their farms they surrendered them to the flames but not to the invaders. That was the scorched earth. And for action behind the german lines, a new army was formed. An army without uniforms whose home was the forest. Whose front was the enemys rear. A guerrilla army. A minimum of glory and a maximum of determination. Their achievements were seldom recorded. Look well at these faces. You will never see them again in the ranks of war prisoners. Or read their names over heroe graves. Ahead of them lay nothing but the rope and the halter. They stayed behind and kept on fighting. Their only goal was merciless destruction. Destruction of communication lines, supply lines, and the invaders themselves. Their weapons were dynamite. And the terror of surprise. They asked for no mercy and they gave none. This is the guerrilla army. This was scorched earth. This is the red army. These, its leaders. These are the reasons why, although the germans conquered land, 500,000 square miles of it was just land barren land, scorched land. After five and a half months of blitz warfare, after coming within sight of their goal, the germans were stopped at the very gates of moscow. These are the reasons why, although hitler had sworn that the swastika would fly from the kremlin towers, december had come, but it was not the swastika that flew over the russian capital. And it was not the nazi conquerors that marched through the streets of the ancient city. But the fresh reserves of the red army. In part one of battle of russia, you saw the russian peoples historic defense of their land against centuries of unsuccessful invaders. You also saw how after five and a half