One-Two, Soldiers Were Going...

One-Two, Soldiers Were Going...
Directed byLeonid Bykov
Written byBoris Vasilyev
Kirill Rapoport
StarringLeonid Bykov
Vladimir Konkin
CinematographyVolodymyr Voytenko
Music byGeorgy Dmitriyev
Production
company
Release dates
  • April 15, 1977 (1977-04-15) (Soviet Union)
  • December 11, 1977 (1977-12-11) (Poland)
  • October 19, 1978 (1978-10-19) (Hungary)
Running time
87 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian

One-Two, Soldiers Were Going... (Russian: Аты-баты, шли солдаты..., romanized: Aty-baty, shli soldaty...) is a 1977 Soviet war film directed by Leonid Bykov.

A small station Podbednya no different from many other stations of the Soviet Union. During the great Patriotic war, there were fierce battles. And now here come the relatives of those who approached the Victory, but did not live up to it.

In the movie "One-Two, Soldiers Were Going..." shows two parallel storylines. The first develops in the mid-1970s, the second — in the spring of 1944. By the end of the movie lines are closed on the battlefield, which takes place on March 18, 1944 and the memory of which honor the audience on March 18, 1974.

Plot

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The film At War as at War follows two parallel storylines set in different eras, ultimately connecting on a battlefield where soldiers sacrificed their lives on March 18, 1944—a memory honored by family and friends on the same date in 1974. In the present-day storyline, Colonel Konstantin Svyatkin celebrates his recent promotion with colleagues when he receives a postcard inviting him to Podbednya station, where his father perished three decades earlier. Raised in an orphanage after his mother’s early death, Konstantin barely remembers his father. On the train to Podbednya, he meets Anna Velenstovich, whose father, Junior Lieutenant Igor Suslin, died in the same battle. Anna, who arranged the gathering, and the local village leader hope to unite relatives of the fallen soldiers. The event brings together those connected by shared loss, including a witness to the battle, Valentina Ivanovna, who recalls the night Suslin’s platoon stayed in her family’s home before heading to their final battle.

The 1944 storyline centers on Junior Lieutenant Suslin, recently assigned to command an anti-tank platoon. Among his soldiers is Corporal Svyatkin, a lighthearted but battle-hardened soldier known as "Matchmaker," who has already taken out three German tanks. Upon arrival at Podbednya, Suslin’s platoon receives orders to spend the night at Ilyinka and proceed to Rumyantsevo. That night, Svyatkin celebrates the birthday of his newborn son with comrades, though he humorously claims he has “no birthday” of his own. Suslin, too, reconnects with an old classmate and spends the evening with her. By morning, he learns from a wounded colonel that a German motorized unit has broken through the lines and is advancing toward Ilyinka. Suslin’s platoon, including the experienced yet playful Svyatkin, is tasked with a critical mission: to hold the line and prevent the enemy from reaching the many wounded soldiers in the area, setting the stage for the sacrifice that would become the focus of commemoration decades later.

Cast

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References

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  • Тендора, Наталья (2011). Леонид Быков. Аты-баты [Leonid Bykov. Aty-baty] (in Russian). Москва: Эксмо. ISBN 978-5-699-53289-6.
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