Liberation (, translit. Osvobozhdenie, , ) is a film series released in 1970 and 1971, directed by Yuri Ozerov and shot in wide-format NIKFI process (70 mm). The script was written by Yuri Bondarev and Oscar Kurganov. The series was a Soviet-Polish-East German-Italian-Yugoslav co-production.
The films are a dramatized account of the liberation of the Soviet Union's territory and the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, focusing on five major Eastern Front campaigns: the Battle of Kursk, the Lower Dnieper Offensive, Operation Bagration, the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin.
Plot Film I: The Fire Bulge After the Soviets are alerted to the imminent German offensive in Kursk, they launch a preemptive artillery strike, delaying the enemy. The battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Lukin – led by officers Tzvetaev, Orlov, and Maximov – participates in the battle, as well as the tank of Lieutenant Vasiliev.
In KZ Sachsenhausen, Yakov Dzhugashvili refuses Andrey Vlasov's offer to exchange him for Friedrich Paulus. Meanwhile, in Kursk, the Germans advance. Maximov flees, but finally turns back and chooses to be shot when captured.
When hearing about the German proposal regarding Yakov, Stalin rejects it, saying he will not trade a Field Marshal for a soldier. The Yugoslav partisans break out of an encirclement. The Soviet counter-offensive is launched in Kursk. Erich von Manstein commits all his forces to a final assault, bringing the Soviets close to defeat. Vatutin urges to send in the strategic reserve, which repels the Germans.
Film II: Breakthrough After the Allied landing in Sicily, Mussolini is arrested on the King's orders. In Warsaw, the Polish Resistance bombs a German cinema. Mussolini is rescued by Otto Skorzeny and his commandos.
The Red Army reaches the Dnieper. Lukin's regiment crosses it, presumably as the division's vanguard; unbeknownst to them, they are merely a ploy to mislead the enemy. The regiment is cut off without reinforcements and wiped out. Lukin is killed. Tzvetaev leads the survivors back to their lines.
On Stalin's orders, the Soviet High Command plans its offensive on Kiev, stealthily redeploying their forces. The city is liberated. The Allied leaders meet in Tehran.
Film III: Direction of the Main Blow Part 1 Stalin informs his allies that a Soviet offensive will take place soon after the Normandy landings. The Stavka decides to strike in Belarus. Orlov leads his soldiers in a charge to rescue nurse Zoia, who insisted on evacuating the wounded from a battlefield.
After concluding that the Belarus marshes are passable, Rokossovsky demands that the main effort be directed towards Bobruysk and insists until Stalin approves. Panteleimon Ponomarenko orders the Belarusian partisans to attack all railways. Operation Bagration is launched.
Part 2 The Soviets march on Bobruysk. Afterwards, they liberate Minsk. A group of German officers tries to assassinate Hitler and take power, but fails. Churchill is pleased to hear of this, fearing a peace would leave Europe to Stalin.
In Poland, Zawadzki and Berling watch the Bug River as the Polish 1st Army crosses it, saying they are happy to return home.
Film IV: The Battle of Berlin Stalin orders to hasten the Vistula–Oder offensive in order to relieve the Allies. Karl Wolff is sent to negotiate with the Americans.
Zhukov rejects Stavka's order to take Berlin, fearing an attack on his flank. In Yalta, Stalin notifies Churchill and Roosevelt that he knows of their secret dealings with the enemy. Saying that trust is the most important thing, he tears apart the picture showing Allen Dulles and Wolff. Zhukov's forces cross the Oder and approach Berlin. The Soviets capture a teenage sniper; they send him to his mother. Vasilev's tank crushes into a house. The crew has a pleasant meal with the owner's family. The Soviets and the Poles storm the Tiergarten.
Film V: The Last Assault In Berlin, Lieutenant Yartsev's infantry and Tzvetaev's battery fight their way in the U-Bahn. When Hitler orders the tunnels flooded, Tzvetaev drowns while rescuing civilians.
Captain Neustroev's company is selected to hoist the Victory Banner atop the Reichstag. A Soviet officer is assigned to Führerbunker as a communication operator for negotiations about German surrender. In the Führerbunker, after marrying Eva Braun, Hitler murders her and commits suicide. At the Reichstag, Dorozhkin is killed in the fighting. The Victory Banner is unfurled on the dome. The Berlin garrison surrenders unconditionally. Outside the Reichstag, Vasiliev, Orlov, Yartsev, and an immense crowd of Red Army soldiers celebrate victory.
Cast Soviet actors
Nikolay Olyalin as Tzvetaev. Larisa Golubkina as Zoia. Vsevolod Sanayev as Lukin. Boris Seidenberg as Orlov. Viktor Avdyushko as Maximov. Yuriy Nazarov as Russian Liberation Army soldier. Mikhail Gluzsky as Ryazhentzev. Ivan Mykolaychuk as Savchuk. Leonid Kuravlyov as Chuikov's signaler. Bukhuti Zaqariadze as Joseph Stalin. Nikolay Bogolyubov as Kliment Voroshilov. Mikhail Ulyanov as Georgy Zhukov. Ivan Pereverzev as Vasily Chuikov. Roman Tkachuk as Alexei Yepishev. Anatoly Kuznetsov as Georgi Zakharov. Viktor Bortsov as Grigory Oriol. Yuri Leghkov as Ivan Konev (films I-II). Vasily Shukshin as Konev (films III-V). Mikhail Nozhkin as Yartsev Yuri Kamorny as Vasiliev. Valery Nosik as Dorozhkin. Evgeny Burenkov as Aleksandr Vasilevsky. Sergei Kharchenko as Nikolai Vatutin. Vladlen Davydov as Konstantin Rokossovsky. Dimitry Franko as Pavel Rybalko. Vladislav Strzhelchik as Aleksei Antonov. Konstantin Zabelin as Mikhail Katukov. Klion Protasov as Sergei Shtemenko. Aleksander Afanasiev as Dmitry Lelyushenko. Grigory Mikhaylov as Mikhail Malinin. Leonid Dovlatov as Sergei Galadzhev. Pyotr Glebov as Pavel Rotmistrov. Lev Polyakov as Andrei Grechko. Viktor Baikov as Vyacheslav Molotov. Alexei Glazyrin as Panteleimon Ponomarenko. Vladimir Korenev as Stepan Neustroev. Eduard Izotov as Alexei Berest. Vladimir Zamansky as Pavel Batov. Gennadi Khrashenikov as Mikhail Yegorov. Gogi Kharabdze as Meliton Kantaria. Yuri Pomernatzev as Andrey Vlasov. Ioseb Gugichaishvili as Yakov Dzhugashvili. Yuri Durov as Winston Churchill. Aleksander Barushnoi as Alan Brooke. Elizaveta Alexeeva as Eleanor Roosevelt. Nikolai Yeremenko Sr. as Josip Broz Tito. Yulia Dioshi as Magda Goebbels. Georgi Tusuzov as Victor Emmanuel III. Vladimir Samoilov as Divisional Commander Gromov Pyotr Shcherbakov as General Telegin
East German actors
Fritz Diez as Adolf Hitler. Horst Giese as sapper Bruno Fermella (I)/Joseph Goebbels (IV-V). Gerd Michael Henneberg as Wilhelm Keitel. Werner Dissel as Alfred Jodl. Siegfried Weiß as Erich von Manstein. Peter Sturm as Walter Model. Hannjo Hasse as Günther von Kluge. Alfred Struwe as Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. Martha Beschort-Diez as old woman in Berlin. Horst Gill as Otto Günsche. Angelika Waller as Eva Braun. Erich Thiede as Heinrich Himmler. Kurt Wetzel as Hermann Göring. Joachim Pape as Martin Bormann. Fred Alexander as Elyesa Bazna. Peter Marx as Theodor Busse. Hans-Ulrich Lauffer as Gustav Schmidt. Erich Gerberding as Ernst Busch. Ralf Böhmke as Adolf Hamann. Wilfried Ortmann as Friedrich Olbricht. Hans-Edgar Stecher as Werner von Haeften. Werner Wieland as Ludwig Beck. Otto Dierichs as Erwin von Witzleben. Paul Berndt as Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim (III)/Artur Axmann (IV-V). Max Bernhardt as Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. Manfred Bendik as Ernst John von Freyend. Rolf Ripperger as Adolf Heusinger. Fritz-Ernst Fechner as Heinz Brandt. Willi Schrade as Wolfram Röhrig. H. Schelske as Friedrich Fromm. Hinrich Köhn as Otto Ernst Remer. Herbert Körbs as Heinz Guderian. Joseph (Sepp) Klose as Karl Wolff. Fred Mahr as Sepp Dietrich. Gert Hänsch as Helmut Weidling. Hans-Hartmut Krüger as Hans Krebs. Otto Busse as Heinz Linge. Georg-Michael Wagner as Walter Wagner.
Polish actors
Jan Englert as Jan Wolny. Stanisław Jaśkiewicz as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Daniel Olbrychski as Henryk. Barbara Brylska as Helena. Wieńczysław Gliński as 'Blacksmith'. Ignacy Machowski as stableman. Franciszek Pieczka as Pelka. Tadeusz Schmidt as Zygmunt Berling. Maciej Nowakowski as Alexander Zawadzki.
Others Ivo Garrani as Benito Mussolini. Erno Bertoli as Pierre Pouyade. Florin Piersic as Otto Skorzeny. B. White as Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen.
Production Background Yuri Ozerov was a student at GITIS when he was conscripted into the Red Army in 1939. Ozerov later told his wife that during the Battle of Königsberg, he swore that one day "he would tell the story of the great army that fought in the war". After demobilization, he became a director in the Mosfilm studios.
In the 1960s, both the Soviet government and military command were dismayed and disgruntled by several Western films about World War II which made no reference to the Red Army's participation in it, most prominently The Longest Day, though in 1967 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was planning an American-Russian international co-production of Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle about the fall of Berlin. In late 1965, a year after Leonid Brezhnev's rise to power, a meeting of senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance was convened. They decided to commission "a monumental epic" which would demonstrate the importance of the Soviet role in the war. Ozerov, who shared the establishment's sentiments and for whom "it was unbearable, as a veteran, to watch those Western films", was chosen to direct it.
In the Brezhnev era, the commemoration of the Second World War was awarded unprecedented importance. Historian Nina Tumarkina described it as "the cult of the Great Patriotic War": its memory, molded according to official historiography, was to serve as a unifying narrative; reverence towards the sacrifices made became the core of a new Soviet patriotism. Denise J. Youngblood described Liberation as the "Brezhnev era's canonical war film", writing that it was "clearly designed to buttress the war cult."
Development Work on the series commenced in 1966. German film scholar Ralf Schenk noted that "virtually all means were made available... for Ozerov"; Lars Karl estimated the project's budget was equivalent to US$40 million. The director was also closely supervised – the series had to meet the approval of General Alexei Yepishev, the Chief of the Armed Forces' Political Directorate, as well as that of Mikhail Suslov. Chapter 17. Lazar Lazarev, a member of the Soviet Filmmakers' Association, wrote "Liberation ...was forced down from above, from the Ideological Departments". From the very beginning, it was made clear that the films should not deal with the darker chapters of World War II, such as the defense of Moscow and Stalingrad, but only with the Red Army's unbroken string of victories from the Battle of Kursk onwards.