Chapaev, the legendary hero of the Civil War and a favourite character of 1930s Soviet cinema, calls out from the screen to mercilessly crush the enemy that has attacked the Soviet Union.
The cast is the same as in the Vasilyevs’ film. It turns out that the legendary hero was not killed after all, but has safely reached the other side of the Urals. And his living orderly, Petka, throws a cloak over his shoulders and leads up a white horse. And Chapaev tells the Red Army soldiers on all fronts what a hero might say to those who are ‘four steps away’ from heroism. The film was released 40 days after the Nazi invasion.
commentaries
The final sequence uses the third movement (Allegro molto vivace) of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique".
