The Battle of Russia

The fifth and longest chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series covers the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Red Army's defense. Co-directed by the Russian-born Anatole Litvak, the film recounts seven hundred years of failed invasions of Russia, then traces the Nazi advance to the gates of Moscow and Leningrad and the turning point at Stalingrad. Released two years before the Cold War, it portrays the Soviet people sympathetically as allies. Walter Huston narrates, with a score by Dimitri Tiomkin drawing on Tchaikovsky and Russian folk song. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.