They fought for their homeland (film)

July 1942 , one of the most tragic periods of the Great Patriotic War. Having lost a large number of soldiers in battle, the Soviet infantry regiment retreats to Stalingrad . During the break, the soldiers talk on different topics, bathe and sleep. One of the regiment's soldiers, Pyotr Lopakhin, who gives the impression of a merry fellow and a joker, leaves for a nearby village for salt and a bucket for freshly caught crayfish. Counting on his talkativeness and charm, Lopakhin makes a request to the old Cossack woman, but stumbles on a contemptuous attitude, as the soldiers retreat, effectively leaving the locals to their fate. After a difficult conversation, in which it turns out that behind the mask of a merry fellow, Lopakhin is hiding a serious man, deeply worried about the fate of his country, the old woman fulfills Lopakhin’s request.

Command gives the task of occupying and holding a height in the middle of the steppe. With difficulty digging trenches in the rocky ground, the soldiers of the regiment equip their positions and repel the first tank attack with grenades and anti-tank rifles. Before the second wave, German aviation bombed the positions of the regiment, as a result of which many soldiers died, heavy shell shock was received by Private Nikolai Streltsov, a friend of Lopakhin. The second tank attack of the Germans becomes almost successful, but the arriving Soviet reinforcements rejects the enemy.

The regiment passes at night on a burning wheat field. Private Ivan Zvyagintsev, a former combine operator , is horrified by the amount of damage caused by the war.

Having reached the next farm, the soldiers prepare for battle, and Lopakhin, flirting with local women, gets milk. In the next battle, he also knocks down a German fighter from the front-engine engine , which explodes when it is stuck in a hill.

After some time, already in another place, the regiment again engages in battle with enemy tanks. Tanks crush the position of the defenders: the death of the brave perishes the young corporal Kochetygov, having managed to set the tank on fire with the help of a bottle with a combustible mixture on his last breath. Soviet soldiers rush into a counterattack, during which Private Zvyagintsev receives severe shrapnel wounds from an artillery mine explosion . The Germans are retreating, and a young, fragile nurse pulls a large ("before the war - 93 kilograms") Zvyagintsev from the battlefield. Having buried the last officer in the regiment (lieutenant), the regiment again moves on. During the break, Private Nekrasov, the father of four children, amuses the soldier with a funny story about how he accidentally scared a decrepit old woman who decided that he creeps at her at night. In Zvyagintsev's medical hospital, they operate without anesthesia , taking numerous fragments from the legs and back.

The regiment is located in the next village, but there are no groceries in the pantry, and local residents refuse to feed the retreating soldiers. Lopakhin makes an attempt to charm the impregnable-looking resident of the village - Natalia - and helps her with the housework. At night, Lopakhin wants to seduce a woman, but she hits him in the eye in the dark. The next morning, Lopakhin sees a table full of products and concludes that his plan was still a success. Natalya bitterly answers him that she has a husband who is now in the hospital, and local women prepared food only because the foreman of the regiment told the local chairman that his soldiers had fought the hardest battle the other day. Natalya adds that the locals are ready to give everything, if only the soldiers would protect them.

Lopakhin in the crowd notices Nikolai Streltsov. It turns out that he escaped from the medical battalion. Despite complete deafness and concussion, Streltsov joins his comrades. The colonel who arrives cordially thanks the fighters and kisses the banner of the regiment, which was carefully guarded throughout the film. The great forces of the Soviet troops are moving towards Stalingrad.

• The role of Lopakhin was the last in the career of Vasily Shukshin . The actor died during the filming, at night in a dream ^[1] , and Igor Efimov already voiced Lopakhin, and in two scenes with Nonna Mordyukova Yuri Solovyov , who had once studied at VGIK along with Shukshin ^[2] .
• TV channel " Russia " was shot a documentary film " They fought for their homeland. Film about the film . "
• In the cinemas of the USSR, 40.6 million viewers watched the film, ^[3] in Poland - 1.302 million ^[4] .
• The picture was one of the first shot on a new system with a universal frame format , and could be printed in both conventional and widescreen and even widescreen versions ^[5] .

• At XX Karlovy Vary ( 1976 ) - Prize of the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters of Czechoslovakia .
• At the XIV Film Festival in Panama ( 1976 ) - an award for directorial work to Sergei Bondarchuk . Award for the best performance of 27 male roles of soldiers, for the best performance of a secondary role - Tatyana Bozhok.
• State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasilyev brothers ( 1977 ).

November 30, 2016 near the building of the Ministry of Defense of Russia on the Frunzenskaya Embankment , a sculptural composition based on the film was opened ^[6] .

• Sholokhov M. A. They fought for their homeland (novel) .
• Khazanov G. I. At the film studio "Mosfilm" (Russian) // " Technique of cinema and television ": magazine. - 1975. - No. 7 . - S. 59-64 . - ISSN 0040-2249 .

• The film "They Fought for their Homeland" in the online movie theater of the Mosfilm film studio
• The text of the novel by M. A. Sholokhov “They Fought for the Motherland” in the library of Maxim Moshkov
• The current location of the film. Farm Melologovsky: https://fotki.yandex.ru/users/vladim-jakovleff2016/album/488510/
• LiveJournal: http://dubikvit.livejournal.com/215738.html
• Information site of the Volgograd region: http://www.newtime.su/news/rodina/
• Komsomolskaya Pravda: https://www.volgograd.kp.ru/daily/24302.5/496489/
• World 24: https://web.archive.org/web/20170512095621/http://mir24.tv/news/society/12599850