Plot synopsis

First, he film centres on Aleksandr Vasilevsky, a staff officer who becomes a marshal in February 1943, at the moment of the Stalingrad turning point. Forming an increasingly crucial tandem with Zhukov — one aggressive and uncompromising, the other careful and methodical — he coordinates the secretly planned counter-offensive that encircles Paulus’s 6th Army after a year of Soviet retreats. In parallel, the narrative dwells on the horror of Stalingrad: Stalin’s ban on evacuating civilians, the apocalyptic bombing of 23 August 1942, hunger, panicked crowds fleeing to the Volga, and the desperate defence by Chuikov’s 62nd Army clinging to a thin strip of riverbank. Vasilevsky appears as a lucid strategist who had already warned against the doomed Kharkov operation in 1942 and who clearly sees the link between the 1937–38 purges and the 1941 disaster, while maintaining an ambiguous personal attitude toward Stalin.

The film then broadens to the Battle of Kursk, the liberation and re-occupation of Kharkov, and Nazi crimes, including gas vans and the first wartime trial, described by writer Konstantin Simonov. In the background we see Stalin using the military tide to remake the USSR as an empire: restoring epaulettes and “Russian” orders, replacing the “Internationale” with a new anthem, reconciling with the Orthodox Church, and securing an enlarged sphere of influence in Europe (Tehran agreements, redrawing Poland’s borders). After the war, the former seminarian and apolitical professional becomes Minister of Defence but clashes increasingly with Stalin, especially after his son marries Zhukov’s daughter, and he is eventually eased out and relegated to a prestigious yet marginal inspector’s post.

Commentaries

Сценарии телесериала «Исторические хроники с Николаем Сванидзе», с 1934го по 1953 год. [Scénarios de la série télévisée « Chroniques historiques avec Nikolaï Svanidzé », de 1934 à 1953], Marina ZHUKOVA, Амфора, 2014

- Screenplay

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Historical Chronicles with Nikolay Svanidze, (kinoglaz.fr), 2026

Photos, videos, texts

Aleksandr VASSILEVSKI (Александр Михайлович ВАСИЛЕВСКИЙ) 1895-1977