October 1941. Thousands of fascists troops are advancing on Kalinin to capture the city and therefore open a direct route to Moscow. There are two thousand people able to defend the city and they are without tanks or artillery. The only hope of holding the enemy off is in the fifth infantry division convoy, who are about to pass through Kalinin station. But saboteurs intend to do everything to keep this from happening. The head of the Kalinin garrison, Major Sysoyev, struggles to keep order and calm in the city, and himself falls under suspicion of involvement with the subversive enemy group.
Acting
Merzlikin simmers with exhausted authority; you feel his sleepless nights.
Production
Kalinin's claustrophobic streets feel genuinely embattled, not costume-party Soviet.
Director
Pavel Drozdov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kalinin (now Tver) was indeed briefly occupied in October 1941; this dramatizes the chaotic hours before liberation. Most Western audiences have never heard of this battle.
The 'traitor commander' trope here inverts Soviet war hero mythology — made permissible only after 1991. Pre-glasnost, Sysoyev would've been pure noble martyr.
RU
