VoenFilm

The story of the Podolsk cadets’ heroic stand outside Moscow in October 1941. Cadets were sent to the Ilyinsky line, fighting alongside units from the Soviet 43rd Army to hold back the German advance until reinforcements arrived. Hopelessly outnumbered, young men laid down their lives in a battle lasting almost two weeks to obstruct the far superior German forces advancing towards Moscow. Around 3,500 cadets and their commanding officers were sent to hold up the last line of defense outside Moscow. Most of them remained there for eternity.

Mikhail Devyatayev, a captured Soviet pilot who leads an escape from a German concentration camp by hijacking an aircraft.

The place where the great poet Pushkin crafted his works. The fascist forces occupied Mikhailovskoye. Each of the local residents “follows his own path”. Some join the partisans, some collaborate with the occupiers. Among them — Sergey. A professor of literature, Frau Shiller comes to Mikhailovskoe from Germany. The front line is getting closer, and soon an order comes from Berlin to transfer all historical values out of Mikhailovskoe. Neither the partisans, nor Sergey, who’s fallen into a relationship with Frau Shiller, can allow this to happen. Sergey decides to save the country’s heritage.

This is a film in the dramatic and adventure genre based on historical and real events — namely an expedition to the North Pole on the airship “”Italy”” in 1928 under the command of General Nobile, ending in the tragic crash of the aircraft. Eight countries participated in the international humanitarian rescue expedition, but only the Soviet icebreaker Krasin was able to remove the surviving crew from the pack ice.