Soldiers (film)

Soldiers (Russian: Солдаты) is a 1956 Soviet World War II film directed by Aleksandr Ivanov.^[1][2][3]

The film takes place during the Great Patriotic War. The film talks about lieutenant Kerzhentsev, his connected Valega and intelligence officer Sedykh, who are heading for Stalingrad.^[4]

July 1942. Three comrades retreat from the Battle of Kharkov: 28-year-old Lieutenant Kerzhentsev (Vsevolod Safonov), his runner Valega (Yuri Solovyov), and regimental scout Ivan Sedykh (Vladimir Kovalkov). They travel alongside a crowd of refugees, passing through Ukrainian villages on their way to Stalingrad. For a brief respite, they stay with a family of a veteran builder from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory (Evgeny Teterin), where Kerzhentsev meets the builder's daughter, Lyusya (Tatyana Loginova), who works at a hospital.

Kerzhentsev and Lyusya take a walk along the Volga embankment and visit Mamayev Kurgan, which at the time is still unfamiliar to most Soviet citizens. Kerzhentsev strikes Lyusya as reserved and pragmatic. Before the war, he had intended to become an engineer—he received his diploma on June 19, 1941, and bought a brand-new drafting compass the next day. However, the war upended his plans, and he was drafted into the engineering corps. Now, even as he surveys Mamayev Kurgan, he evaluates it from a purely strategic perspective, considering how best to position machine guns and organize defenses. War has made him a realist: > "Even when I look at the moon, I consider its usefulness in warfare."

The next morning, Kerzhentsev bids farewell to Lyusya, who is carried off into the still-peaceful city by a tram.

Lieutenant Kerzhentsev is assigned to the 184th Rifle Division, taking over for a fallen battalion commander. His battalion consists of just 36 men instead of the 400 typical for wartime units—but every soldier is a hero.

Among them are regimental scouts from the Soviet Navy, led by the brave and boisterous Chumak (Leonid Kmit, who famously portrayed Petka in Chapayev). Initially, Kerzhentsev and Chumak clash. Other soldiers include Farber (Innokenty Smoktunovsky), a bespectacled intellectual and romantic who carries a notebook everywhere; and squad leader Karnaoukhov, who decorates his bunker with a portrait of Jack London and treasures a copy of Martin Eden.

The battalion receives an order from the divisional commander to capture the first two lines of German positions on the strategic heights near the "Metiz" factory at Mamayev Kurgan. Kerzhentsev successfully takes the first line with minimal losses. However, the regiment's chief of staff, Captain Abrosimov, seeking to impress his superiors, issues a reckless order to attack the second line at dawn under heavy rain and enemy fire.

The ill-fated assault costs half of the battalion their lives. Among the fallen is Karnaoukhov, who dies in Kerzhentsev’s arms.

At a party meeting, Abrosimov is demoted to private for his fatal mistake. Farber delivers an impassioned speech about the senselessness of such orders.

Kerzhentsev is seriously wounded during a German artillery strike. Valega transports him to a hospital where Lyusya, now a doctor, helps him recover. A romance develops between them. Once his injuries heal, Kerzhentsev returns to duty in the devastated Stalingrad. He notes with satisfaction the growing order amidst the chaos of the siege and the arrival of new equipment at the front.

Approaching the "Metiz" factory, Kerzhentsev revisits the trenches where his battalion and Karnaoukhov made their stand. He reunites with Chumak and Ivan Sedykh, who proudly displays a military decoration. They come across a captured Leica camera, and under Farber’s guidance—“shutter speed at one-hundredth, aperture at eight”—Kerzhentsev takes a photograph of his comrades.

The film closes with this photograph displayed on a wall, accompanied by Kerzhentsev’s voiceover expressing a hope that future generations will never know the horrors of war. This is the essence of the film’s trench-level truth: to fight so that there will one day be peace.

• Vsevolod Safonov as Kerzhentsev
• Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy^[5]
• Tamara Loginova
• Leonid Kmit
• Nikolay Pogodin
• Oleg Dashkevich as Soldier
• Lyudmila Markeliya
• Yury Solovyov
• Evgeniy Teterin

• Soldiers at IMDb

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