PBS - Russia's War: Blood upon the Snow (1995)

Fifty years after the end of World War II, historians now are coming to the consensus that Russia played the decisive role in the defeat of Hitler. At least 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians perished at home and on the battlefield in the bloodiest struggle of our century.
Questions persist about how that defeat was achieved. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes - of something deep within the Russian soul? Were the Olympic battles of the Eastern front - Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk - won by the superior strategies of Stalin's generals? Hitler's armies were stopped only a few miles short of Moscow. Was Russia more prepared for the Nazi invasion than previously assumed?
The collapse of the USSR in 1991 brought about unprecedented access to the formerly secret Soviet state and party archives, as well as unimagined opportunities for collaboration between Russian and western historians and filmmakers. The British-Russian documentary television series "Blood Upon the Snow: Russia's War" was one of the earliest and most important products of this new openness. In ten fifty-two-minute episodes, it traces the rise of Stalin and the Soviet experience of the Second World War. As such, it was the first major television production to direct the western public's attention to the heroism and, particularly, to the horrors of the Eastern Front, and the first to bring to light archival footage and interviews with eyewitnesses of events.
This is the incredibly powerful story of the Stalin years. It is based on rarely seen archival footage, contemporary diaries and documents and personal memoirs, as well as interviews with relatives and those people who survived the Gulag labour camps and World War II. RUSSIA'S WAR: Blood Upon the Snow brings to life the story of the people of the Soviet Union during World War II who struggled to survive. A compelling story of bloody battles, and endless courage as the Soviet people combat not only Hitler and the German Army, but their own leader as well.
The series follows events from Stalin's rise to power, his association with Hitler and the Soviet involvement in the Second World War right through to his death. This incredibly powerful 10-hour story of the Stalin years features never-before-seen Russian images, once-secret documents, and leading Russian historians to explore Russia from 1924 through 1953.

Directed & Produced by Tengiz Semenov and Victor Lisakovitch ; Series Producers: Judith De Paul and Alexander Surikov ; Victory Series (Russia) in association with IBP Films Distribution Ltd

Part 1: The Darkness Descends
This opening episode studies the birth and formation of the totalitarian system in Germany and the USSR in the late 20s and early 30s of the twentieth century, Hitler's rise to power and the policy of two dictators, Hitler and Stalin, aimed at gaining and strengthening personal power.
Lenin dies and leaves behind a power struggle for the leadership of the Soviet empire. He also leaves a testament–a fatal warning against Stalin's ambition. Nevertheless, Stalin rises to power, mysterious assassinations of political rivals follows, and his war against the Soviet people begins, including the downtrodden peasants, political foes, and anyone else he considered to be an enemy. On the eve of the war with Germany, he launches a disastrous purge on the officers of the Red Army.

Part 2: The Hour before Midnight
This episode covers the period from 1937 until the very beginning of Germany's attack on the USSR. The film shows the aggressive policy of Germany, implementing plans for expansion into Europe, the rampant repressions in the USSR against all dissidents and the destruction of the command personnel of the Red Army.
In Germany, Hitler is planning to enlarge his territory, becoming ever more aggressive. In Spain, Fascism and Communism face each other for the first time, while the purges in the Soviet Union reach a crescendo. Stalin is wielding his tyrannical power by ruthlessly eliminating the leaders of his Red Army. In foreign affairs, Stalin plans the most astounding about-face of the century. Hitler and Stalin become allies, and they invade and partition Poland between them, resulting in the swift defeat of Poland.

Part 3: The Goths Ride East
On 21 June 1941, 3 million German troops along a front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea are moved into final position while Soviet citizens are completely ignorant of what is to come. This episode documents Germany's attack on the USSR on June 22, 1941, the USSR's unpreparedness for war, about the heroism of the Soviet people who blocked the enemy's path, and the fierce defensive battles of the Red Army near Moscow.
The Germans invade the Soviet Union, leading to chaos and confusion as the Red Army falls back. Under Stalin's regime, many Russians have been killed, from common peasants to high-ranking officers in the Soviet Army. When Hitler's troops march into Russia in a blitzkrieg attack, the surprised Russians fall back. Stalin, paralyzed by the shock, retreats to his dacha. Minsk, Kiev, and Smolensk fall. Stalin returns from hiding and signs the infamous Order 270, branding captured Soviet officers as traitors and committing their wives to forced labor. With the first snows, the Wehrmacht arrives at the gates of Moscow.

Part 4: Between Life and Death
This episode is dealing Germany's war against the USSR in the autumn of 1941, the battle of Moscow and the defeat of German troops, the siege of Leningrad and the steadfastness of the residents of the besieged city.
Hitler's forces arrive at Moscow without taking into account the severity of Russian winters. It is October, and the first snows have begun to fall. Meanwhile, Leningrad is still holding out despite being surrounded on land, bombed from the air and attacked with heavy artillery. The inhabitants of the city were now under siege, and many were to die from lack of food. Outside Moscow, resistance continues into the winter and the German offensive is halted. The Red Army mounts a counteroffensive, as both Hitler and Stalin display brutality toward their own armies. Stalin orders all deserters shot, in order to keep enough troops at the front to protect Moscow.

Part 5: The Fight from Within
The Germans are at the gates of Moscow. The winter closes in and starvation claims thousands of lives in the besieged city of Leningrad. The Red Army counterattacks on the Moscow front. This episode of the Russo-German War covers repressive actions of the German occupation authorities, concentration camps and the partisan struggle behind enemy lines in 1942.
In the Nazi-captured regions of Russia, the life of villagers went from bad to worse. During the war in the occupied Soviet Union, many oppressed Soviet citizens welcome Hitler, but their enthusiasm is short-lived as they discover his plans, and when Hitler's forces began to display their utter disdain of Soviet citizens. The Partisan resistance movement begins without Stalin's support. Then, as he begins to accept the Partisans, he provides them with supplies, increasing their power, and ordering them to kill Bandera's nationalist partisans, German collaborators and anyone suspected of disloyalty.

Part 6: The Cauldron Boils
The episode documents a second half of 1942, the victorious German Kharkov offensive in the southern front, the battle for Stalingrad, ending with the encirclement and defeat of German troops.
At this point in the war, Hitler is badly in need of supplies, and realizes that the vast oil stores of the Caucasus Mountains would solve some of his fuel problems. He pushes a large faction of his exhausted troops toward this goal, while another heads to Stalingrad for another offensive. Meanwhile, Stalin has told his Red Army that anyone caught retreating will be executed. The use of suicidal Penal Battalions, formed in part from Russia's political prisoners, began, and by the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, over one million Russian soldiers had lost their lives.

Part 7: The Citadel
In March 1943 with the victory at Stalingrad, Germany is now on the defensive and hope surged in the people of the Soviet Union. The episode reviews the beginning to the end of 1943, the battle of Kursk, the defeat of the Germans, the pursuit of the retreating enemy, the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kyiv.
As the Russians began to make gains against the German army, both sides began to see the importance of the region of Kursk. After the harsh Russian winter, both sides had time to regroup during the spring. Soviet war production, now moved out of the reach of German bombers, churned out fresh supplies of war machinery, and Hitler unveiled his new plan, known as the Citadel. The July 5, 1943, meeting of the two opposing forces at Kursk became the biggest tank battle ever fought, utilizing six thousand tanks, four thousand aircraft, and two million soldiers.

Part 8: False Dawn
In January 1944, the Red Army pushes west in the far north, finally lifting the siege of Leningrad. This episode goes through the timeline from January 1944 to January 1945, the success of the military operation "Bagration", the liberation of the countries of Eastern Europe by the Red Army, and the opening of the second front by the allies of the USSR
After finally expelling German forces from besieged city in Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, the Red Army is finding success, retaking the Baltic states, Zhytomyr in Ukraine and surrounding 6 German divisions at Korsun. Three years to they day after the German invasion, Zhukov launches a massive attack through Byelorussia, operation Bagration. A million Soviet partisans disrupt German supply lines and communications, and the Red Army pushes into Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, and eventually into Poland in January 1945.

Part 9: The Fall of the Swastika
At the start of 1945, German cities are under heavy bombardment, yet defeat is arriving by land - the British, American and allied forces in the west, and the Soviets in the east. The Red Army pushes through Poland, freeing Soviet citizens in slave labor camps and the concentration camps. This episode details the last months of the war in the winter and spring of 1945, the Berlin operation, the death of Hitler, the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Potsdam Peace Conference.
Germany is now on the brink of defeat. As the Red Army approaches Berlin, Hitler mobilizes both young and old to defend the doomed city. By the 19th April, Soviet forces are in the suburbs of Berlin, and meeting American forces at the Elbe on the 25th. Late on April 30th, Soviet Soldiers found Hitler's and Eva Braun's body. With the fall of Berlin and the death of his old enemy, Stalin turns once again to the control of his own people.

Part 10: The Cult of Personality
The topic of the last episode is the political situation in Europe and the USSR after the defeat of Germany in May 1945, the strengthening of Stalin's personal power, the repressions against the Soviet people, the beginning of the "cold war", the testing of the Soviet atomic bomb and the death of Stalin.
After World War II, those who hoped for a softening of the Stalin regime policies were disappointed. Instead of easing up on his tyrannical wielding of power, Stalin continued his persecution of Soviet citizens, and imposed his system on other communist nations in Eastern Europe. This episode examines his attitudes toward his own people and his ambition to expand Russian territories. The beginnings of resistance to his policies can be discerned, and, in 1953, Stalin dies of a brain hemorrhage.