Soviet Union in Retreat During Operation Barbarossa (1941)

Synopsis

An incredibly difficult period in the life of our country began. (00.26) Residents of ravaged towns and villages were leaving for the east. The equipment of factories and plants was evacuated. As Lenin taught us, ‘If a war starts, everything should comply with its needs.’ (00.58) The Party devised a program of military restructuring of the country. ‘The treacherous attack by Fascist Germany against the Soviet Union is continuing. The goal of this attack is to destroy the Soviet system, to occupy Soviet lands, to enslave the peoples of the Soviet Union, to rob our country, to capture our bread and oil, to restore the rule of landholders and capitalists.’ (01.36) The enemy had already stepped on Soviet soil, took over most of Lithuania, including the cities of Kaunas and Vilnius, occupied part of Latvia, the Brest, Vereiskaya, and Bialystok regions of the Soviet Belarus, and some districts of Western Ukraine. A few other districts were in immediate danger. The goal of the Bolsheviks was to rally the people around the Communist Party and the Soviet government, to selflessly support the Red Army and achieve victory. (02.32) The Party sent 9,000 leading party workers to the front. Tens of thousands of Communists and Komsomol members went to war as political fighters. (03.13) New fighting units were being prepared for the front. The Leningrad Party organization introduced the initiative of forming a People's Militia out of citizens who were unfit for conscription. The Central…

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Details

Running time

10 minutes

Language

English

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage