A Grand Tradition

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Description: The history of the Red Army from its formation in 1918, through 1925 when the Soviet Union first produced armoured vehicles, and WW2, up to the 1968 May Day parade showing nuclear capable rockets.
Duration: 19 mins 37 secs
Producer: Novosti Press Agency
Subjects: Political leadership, Military equipment, Communism, Nuclear weapons, Nazism, USSR, Armed forces, War
Segment 1: 7 November 1967, military parade Red Square marking the 50th anniversary of the Soviet State. Troops addressed by Soviet Defence Minister Marshal Andrei Grechkov. Footage of parade. Title. Brezhnev salutes as troops and machinery march past. Civil War veterans watch. Civil War archive footage; troops assembling, marching and in transport. Enemy forces. Support for young Soviet State, recruits sign up and in training. First Red Army parade viewed by Lenin. On the soundtrack, the song "Be Brave Brothers". Lenin addresses troops who are to march straight to the front, his voice heard. Troops board train, off to the front. Battle scenes, use of captured equipment. New branches of army developed.
Segment 2: 1925 military parade. Army still ill-equipped but the country was beginning to develop industry. Footage of first tractors and cars. First cars and aircraft turned over to army, as were the tanks, viewed in the 1932 military parade. The Nazis gain power and Hitler salutes a parade. Hitler, Goering and Mussolini plan to "re-divide the world": Italian attack in Abyssinia; Spanish Civil War. Soviet Union holds several garrisons to check military readiness. Foreign military specialists view manoeuvres; aerial and ground shots. Soviet Union proposes collective defence system to Western powers, but is ignored. USSR relies on itself. Army gains experience with new, more sophisticated equipment. Soldiers revered by villagers. WW2. Red Army lie in wait, tanks roll through countryside, bombs dropping. Nazi advance nears Moscow; winter war defences. 7 November 1941 traditional military parade in Moscow to demonstrate Red Army preparedness. Stalin. T-34 tanks. Soldiers go straight to front. Firing of Katyusha (Stalin's organ's) guns, explosions and fighting in the snow - 6 December 1941 counter-offensive.
Segment 3: Graveyard, German POW's marched through Moscow. Battle of Berlin, Red army storm Reichstag. Celebrations in Moscow. Summer 1945 celebration parade in Red Square, Nazi flags and banners thrown to ground. Post war training, classrooms. Signing the Warsaw Pact, 14 May 1955 as a reaction to NATO [more specifically, to West German membership of NATO and the withdrawal of occupation forces from Austria] (brief shot of Brezhnev and Gromyko). Military parade, Red Square: 40th anniversary of formation of Soviet State. Nuclear capability shown. New branch of armed forces announced in 1959; Strategic Missile Forces, as missiles become main strike forces of infantry, anti-aircraft defence units, Navy and Air Force. Tests being carried out. Spring 1964; nuclear powered submarine sails under Arctic ice and surfaces at North Pole. Raising of the Soviet flag, celebrations at the Pole. 1 May celebrations at the same time. May Day Parade in Red Square, military equipment on display.
Segment 4: Developments of military, atom powered and missile equipped. Images of new machinery and technology. Dnieper manoeuvres in 1967, developments in infantry apparent. Montage of battle manoeuvres, ground and air. Military parade in Dnieper, people throw flowers and greet the soldiers with traditional bread and salt. Marshal Matvei Zakharov speaks in the honour of the Red army. Military and peoples parade in Red Square. Credits. End.
Persistent URL: http://edina.ac.uk/purl/isan/0002-0000-2665-0000-0-0000-0000-0
Written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Subject classification by University of Edinburgh Library © 2006