The Great Patriotic War united the peoples of the Soviet Union in the fight against fascism. This film tells the story of a monumental feat of courage – one in which each of the USSR’s 100 nationalities played a role in achieving Victory.
The heroism of the Panfilov Division, made up in part of soldiers from the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSRs, helped stop the enemy at the very gates of Moscow. Tajik cavalry units delivered crushing blows to Nazi troops, including elite divisions like the Death’s Head Units and the Grossdeutschland. In Dushanbe, 22 evacuation hospitals treated wounded soldiers from across the front. Kazakhstan took in 220 relocated factories, the Lenfilm and Mosfilm studios, and hundreds of thousands of refugees. In Kyrgyzstan, 18-year-old Toktogon Altybasarova welcomed 150 children evacuated from besieged Leningrad, offering them warmth and care. In the forests of Belarus, partisans derailed German trains, paving the way for the Red Army’s 1944 offensive. Georgian troops defended the Caucasus, holding the line to keep Baku’s oil out of enemy hands.
Historians, experts, and descendants of wartime heroes share stories of courage, unity, and the high price paid for peace. How did these millions, from frontline soldiers to factory workers, unite to defeat fascism? Their legacy lives on in monuments and in the hearts of their descendants across the former USSR.
