USSR in the pre-war years (1938-June 1941) (1975)

Newsreel: Aleksey Stakhanov working at the coalface.

Coal transportation along the adits.

Trains with coal and fuel pass by.

Trucks and tractors on railway platforms.

Views and panoramas of industrial construction.

Threshed grain is poured into grain storage bins.

Grape harvesting in Moldova and the Central Asian republics.

A man leafs through a book in a library, a photo of one of the metro stations.

People on public transport on the streets of Moscow in the late 1930s.

Faces of young passengers on the children's railway.

A young conductor blows a whistle.

The children's railway train starts moving.

An episode from a football match.

The face of a fan.

View of the stadium (from above).

Swimming competitions in an open-air pool.

Participants in one of the physical education parades walk along Red Square.

A woman walks with a child in her arms (freeze frame).

Fragments of the text of the 1936 USSR Constitution.

Newsreel from 1936: delegates to the 8th All-Union Extraordinary Congress of Soviets applaud standing after the adoption of the USSR Constitution on December 5, 1936. People walk to a factory, newsreel interspersed with photographs reflecting the rights of Soviet citizens enshrined in the USSR Constitution.

Swimming in the sea.

Students walk to school.

A pensioner reads a book while sitting on a bench.

Construction workers go to work.

Representatives of the Soviet Union republics at VDNKh.

Photographs of the 1937 World Fair in Paris, visitors inside the Soviet pavilion.

Visitors examine the Soviet exposition.

Units of the Imperial Japanese Army during a parade.

Japanese officers study the situation on a map spread out on the ground.

Landscape in the area of Lake Khasan.

A mounted border patrol on patrol.

Japanese planes flying.

A Red Army anti-aircraft machine gun crew fires at an aerial target during the conflict at Lake Khasan in June 1938. Japanese bombers bomb Soviet positions.

A Japanese gunner at a gun panorama.

Japanese artillery fires.

Portrait of Marshal of the Soviet Union V.K. Soviet artillery fires at the enemy in the area of Lake Khasan.

Trophies taken by the Red Army during battles with the Japanese.

A soldier of the trophy team counts Japanese helmets.

Accounting of captured Japanese weapons.

Cavalrymen of the Mongolian People's Army riding camels.

Map of military operations in the area of the Khalkhin-Gol River in 1939 (animation).

Commander of the Red Army grouping, Corps Commander G.K. Zhukov plots the offensive plan on the map.

Marshal Choibalsan passes in a group of Soviet soldiers.

A Soviet tank crosses a water obstacle.

Soviet troops fight against Japanese militarists during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.

A column of Japanese prisoners of war marches under escort.

Hitler greets the troops.

Wehrmacht and Nazi stormtrooper units during parades in Germany in 1936-1937. Hitler greets naval personnel from aboard a warship.

Map of the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 (cartoon).

Wehrmacht infantry and tanks advance to the borders of Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1938, photographs of the League of Nations meeting room in Geneva.

Litvinov M.M. speaks from the rostrum, the text of Litvinov's speech in the Pravda newspaper.

Faces of British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier.

Map of the capture of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia by Germany (cartoon).

Fragments of the text of the Soviet government's statement on the events in Czechoslovakia.

Cartoon on the actions of England and France in the Czechoslovak question.

Newsreel from 1938: anti-fascist demonstration on the streets of Prague.

President of Czechoslovakia E. Beneš at his desk.

Chamberlain's arrival in Munich in the spring of 1939. Chamberlain and Daladier respond to greetings from the car.

Hitler's arrival at the Führerbau building in Munich to sign the agreement on the Sudetenland.

Signing of the Munich Agreement, B. Mussolini among the participants in the signing of the agreement.

Hitler, Chamberlain and Daladier after signing the agreement.

Chamberlain gives a speech at the airport after returning to London.

Wehrmacht units enter Czechoslovakia.

Printing of the Pravda newspaper.

Text of Stalin's report to the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Newsreel from 1939: view of the congress meeting hall. A. A. Andreyev gives a speech at the congress meeting.

View of the meeting hall. A.S. Shcherbakov speaks from the rostrum.

Diagram of the growth of government spending in the USSR in the period from 1932 to 1937 (animation).

Diagrams of the planned growth of gross industrial and agricultural output and national income in the Third Five-Year Plan (animation).

Newsreel from 1939: a delegate to the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) speaks from the rostrum.

Faces of applauding delegates.

Quality control of products in the Quality Control Department of one of the machine-tool plants.

A girl at a machine tool.

The face of an oil worker.

Miners greet Stakhanov’s team after they set a record for coal production in a shift in 1935. Faces of Stakhanov and driller Semivolos.

Portraits of blast furnace operator M. Mazai, blacksmith Busygin, machinist Krivonos.

Newsreel from 1936-1938: steelmakers in a shop at a furnace.

Production process in a forge shop.

Faces of rationalizer workers, newsreel alternates with photographs.

Production processes in textile factory shops.

Shock workers weavers, the Vinogradov sisters, at work.

Views and panoramas of textile factory shops.

Texts of the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the establishment of the title "Hero of Socialist Labor" and awards for labor valor.

Newsreel of 1939-1940: views of new industrial enterprises in the USSR, production processes at the Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant, Ufa Oil Refinery, Ufa Aluminum Plant and other enterprises.

Production processes in one of the shops of the Balkhash Copper Smelter in 1939. An engineer discusses a production issue with a foreman.

The process of coal mining in the mines of Karaganda.

Views and panoramas of new deposits on the Volga.

Map of the USSR showing new industrial enterprises and mineral deposits.

Newsreel from 1940: students of the factory school of the state labor reserves system during classes on studying the material part of a steam locomotive.

Practical classes in vocational and railway schools in 1940. Faces of young steelmakers.

Grain threshing at a grain threshing floor of one of the collective farms of the Ukrainian SSR. Bags of new grain in the back of a truck.

A clerk counts workdays.

Grain harvesting with combines, the face of a combine operator.

Combine reels rotating.

Harvesting various crops with combines and tractor reapers.

Cotton harvesting in one of the republics of Central Asia.

Sugar beet grower Maria Demchenko harvesting (freeze frame).

Foreman of the advanced tractor brigade Praskovya Angelina inspects an engine, Angelina's face, a photo of a girl trailer operator.

Views of the construction of the Great Fergana Canal.

Earthworks during the construction of the canal, collective farmers dig the earth with hoes and carry it on stretchers.

Views of finished sections of the canal bed (top).

One of the teams of canal builders during the celebration of its opening.

The builders eat pilaf and drink tea.

An orchestra of national musical instruments plays.

Representatives of the Union republics of the USSR of various nationalities during the celebration of the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSHV) on August 1, 1939. Samples of agricultural products in the exhibition pavilions.

Visitors in the exhibition pavilions.

Panorama of the VSHV territory (top).

Views of Moscow streets in 1939, motor transport on the streets, a traffic controller at an intersection.

A caricature of the aggressive aspirations of the leaders of the fascist states.

Newsreel from 1939-1940: Hitler, Goering during a meeting with the military.

The arrival of a train at the station in the summer of 1939. Military representatives of England and France exit the carriage, Soviet soldiers meet them.

English and French soldiers walk along the platform.

Meeting of German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop at the airport in Moscow, text of a newspaper report on the conclusion of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact.

Panorama of a rally on the territory of one of the Moscow factories.

Faces of rally participants, speakers speak from the rostrum.

Wehrmacht soldiers destroy a border post on the Polish-German border, open the barrier on September 1, 1939. German planes bomb the territory of Poland.

View of a populated area during an air raid (above).

Walls of houses collapse.

People escape from the air raid.

The face of a crying girl.

German troops march through the streets of the captured city.

Nazi flags on the walls of the palace in Krakow.

German troops on the streets of occupied Polish cities.

German troops during the offensive in Poland.

Hitler and Mussolini discuss the progress of military operations with the military.

A Soviet cavalry unit enters a village in eastern Poland in September 1939. Local residents greet the Red Army and give flowers to the soldiers.

Peasants greet Soviet tankers and cavalrymen, faces of peasants.

A workers' demonstration in one of the Baltic states.

Fighters from one of the Estonian people's self-defense units receive uniforms and weapons.

The unit begins to move.

Trucks with armed men drive through the streets of Tallinn.

A sentry at the entrance to the train station.

A sentry on the pier near the warships.

Sentries at the entrance to the Estonian Bank.

A speaker addresses a rally.

Faces of rally participants.

Leaflets being scattered from the back of a truck.

Texts of newspaper reports on the resignation of the governments of the Baltic states.

The raising of the red flag on the Tall Hermann tower in Tallinn.

Pro-Soviet demonstration on the streets of Riga, people greeting the participants of the demonstration.

Representatives of the communist governments of the Baltic countries on the stands.

Panorama of the rally (top).

Soviet troops on the streets of Chisinau in the summer of 1940, people greeting the Red Army soldiers.

View of the meeting hall of the Seventh Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the Grand Kremlin Palace.

A representative of one of the Baltic countries speaks from the rostrum.

Map of the reunification of Western Ukraine and Belarus and the Baltic countries into the USSR (animation).

Map of the USSR with the population (animation).

Newsreel of 1940-1941: production processes in the workshops of industrial enterprises.

New ZIS-101 cars coming off the conveyor.

Cars at the finished goods site of the Stalin plant.

Trucks of the Gorky Automobile Plant at the finished goods site.

A train with tracked tractors moves.

Output of products of shoe and textile factories.

Diagrams of the increase in gross output, production of means of production, growth of industry and agriculture in 1940 compared to 1913 (animation).

Text of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the transition to an eight-hour working day and strengthening labor discipline, published in the press.

Photograph of delegates to the 18th All-Union Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) during a regular meeting.

Newsreel from 1940-1941: views of a steelmaking shop, the production process, delivery of melts.

Views of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station dam.

A steam locomotive on the way.

Panorama of the finished product site of one of the tractor plants (top).

Heavy artillery on caterpillar tracks and tanks during a parade to mark the end of maneuvers.

Red Army servicemen conduct general military training classes among the population, a serviceman explains the structure of a machine gun.

A lesson in firearms, studying the materiel of a rifle.

Conducting target practice.

Hitting the target.

Tanks emerge from the forest during exercises, breaking tree trunks.

Fighter planes fly by.

A torpedo boat unit during maneuvers.

View of the bow of a warship with a gun turret (top).

Aircraft designer A. Yakovlev demonstrates a model of a new aircraft.

Military engineers and designers developing prototypes of new combat equipment.

Units of BM-13 guards mortars fire at the enemy.

View of a part of Red Square during a military parade (top).

Artillery units with mechanical traction drive across Red Square, Voroshilov K.E., Stalin I.V. greet the troops from the rostrum of the mausoleum, faces of spectators.

Heavy tanks at a parade on Red Square.

Fighter planes fly by.

Soviet artillery fires at the enemy.

Red Army soldiers with a red banner climb the steps of the Reichstag.

The Victory Banner over the Reichstag in May 1945. Soldiers and officers give a rifle salute.

The Captured Banners Battalion throws the Wehrmacht banners at the foot of the mausoleum during the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945.