Beyond Sergei Bondarchuk's cult military drama lies a fascinating story that could be the plot for a separate film: burned villages, tons of explosives, a revolt against generals' memoirs, and the unexpected death of the main actor. In 2025, it will be fifty years since the release of "They Fought for Their Country" — a film in which every scene is imbued with frontline truth, and the filming process turned into a real struggle.
Plot
July 1942. On the approaches to Stalingrad, the bloodless, exhausted Soviet troops are conducting heavy defensive battles, suffering huge losses. The film tells about the feat of ordinary soldiers, love for their native land, about the true price of victory.
Soldiers, yesterday's peasants and workers, desperately hold back the onslaught of the enemy, who surpasses them in strength and technology, with weapons in their hands. Trenches, scarred by explosions, become their home, and short respites between battles are a moment of rare calm, filled with memories of peaceful life, of relatives and friends left far behind.
Among the continuous roar of guns and the свист of bullets, the true characters of people are revealed. The simple-minded private Streltsov (Yuri Nikulin), the laconic sergeant major Popchenko (Sergei Bondarchuk), the fearless lieutenant Golokhvastov (Vasily Shukshin) — each of them experiences the horrors of war in their own way, but they are all united by one thing — an unwavering belief in victory and a willingness to give their lives for the Motherland.
Filming process
At the insistence of Sholokhov, the film was shot in the places of real battles. Before the group arrived, sappers cleared the fields of unexploded shells. In May 1974, a mass film battle unfolded near the Kletskaya village, where mannequins with the faces of famous actors were used, creating the illusion of real victims.
For one of the scenes, the Melologovsky farm was burned down, buying houses from local residents and building them new housing. They also burned a field of wheat, compensating the collective farm for the losses. The production designer was Felix Yasyukevich.
The complexity of filming scenes involving aviation was added by the fact that the nearest runway was at a considerable distance, due to which the planes could be in the frame for about seven minutes. After that, it was necessary to return for refueling. Since using military equipment is an expensive and time-consuming business, they tried to shoot with a minimum number of takes.
Technics
Director Sergei Bondarchuk not only conducted a thorough preparation of the acting staff for a more convincing game. He also paid special attention to the military equipment involved in the filming. After all, it was planned to shoot large-scale and impressive battle scenes with the participation of airplanes and tanks in the film.
Actually, due to the unprecedented scale of the future "battles," filmmakers had to be cunning in the matter of equipping tracked and winged vehicles: it turned out to be simply impossible to get the required number of tanks from the times of the Great Patriotic War — and even on the move.
The creators of the film had to wriggle out. I had to forget about complete authenticity. So, instead of captured German "Tigers," Soviet T-44s were used "after a slight modification with a file." Outwardly, after such a disguise, they differed little from the originals, but the chassis with a different number of rollers gave out the substitution. And the same problem arose with the "messers." So instead of them, Czechoslovak L-29s buzzed in the sky above the heroes of the picture.
Of course, with such scales, other difficulties arose with the equipment. Then the operator was almost "caressed" by a log stuck on the tank, then the mechanic-driver, who did not understand the command, would turn in the wrong direction, almost crushing the crowd. Even radios, which had to be used for coordination due to the gigantic size of the set, did not save from such force majeure.
About five tons of TNT were used in the work on the picture. Fortunately, filmmakers managed to avoid serious accidents when working with this substance.
Main parameters of the T-44 tank: weight in combat gear 31.8 tons, crew of four people, dimensions — hull length 6.07 m, total length with gun 7.65 m, width 3.18 m, height 2.41 m; armament includes an 85-mm ZIS-S-53 gun of the 1944 model and two 7.62-mm DTM machine guns; diesel engine V-44 with a capacity of 368 kW (500 hp); the speed on the highway reaches 60 km/h, on rough terrain 25–30 km/h; cruising range on the highway 200–250 km, on rough terrain 180–200 km; suspension individual torsion, specific pressure on the ground 0.83 kg/cm².
Technical characteristics of the Czechoslovak Aero L-29 Delfin aircraft: crew — 2 people, wingspan — 10.29 m, length — 10.81 m, height — 3.13 m, wing area — 19.8 m², empty weight — 2384 kg, fuel reserve — main 1030 l, equipped weight — 3280 kg, full take-off weight — 3632 kg, engine — 1×Motorlet M-701C 500, maximum thrust — 1×840 kgf (8.7 kN), maximum speed — at an altitude of 8000 m — 612 km/h, stall speed — 130 km/h, flight range — with 100% fuel — 710 km (1 hour 44 minutes), with two suspended tanks — 920 km (2 hours 15 minutes), practical ceiling — 10 900 m, take-off run length on a concrete strip — 600–650 m, armament — two bombs of caliber 50, 100 or a maximum of 120 kg on two external beam holders or two blocks of R57-4M with four S-5 missiles.
The film ends with a quote from Mikhail Sholokhov: "If love for the Motherland is stored in our hearts, and will be stored as long as these hearts beat, then we always carry hatred for enemies on the tips of bayonets"
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