The Unknown War

Season 1
The Unknown War is a landmark documentary series about the Soviet struggle against the Nazi war machine. Hosted and narrated by Burt Lancaster, it features stunning footage recorded by Soviet camera crews on the front lines, most of it unseen for years.
IMDb 8.4197820 episodes13+
Available to buy

Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - 15149

    June 21, 1978
    49min
    13+
    On a pleasant June morning in 1941 nothing seemed more peaceful than Red Square and Moscow itself. It was early summer, and people were strolling along the broad streets, shopping in the big department stores or going to the country for the day.
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  2. S1 E2 - The Battle For Moscow

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    On October 8, 1941, Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, broadcast from Berlin that Moscow had fallen. Hitler's troops could see the Kremlin towers from their front lines; another four or five days and the Nazi flag would fly over the Kremlin.
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  3. S1 E3 - The Siege Of Leningrad

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    In the history of the Unknown War, Leningrad stands out as a symbol of the courage and persistence of the Russian people. For years Leningrad resisted capture by Hitler's forces.
    Available to buy
  4. S1 E4 - To The East

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    This is the story of ordinary Russian civilians who worked to supply the military with tanks, planes, guns -- whatever was necessary to win the war against the Nazis.
    Available to buy
  5. S1 E5 - The Defense Of Stalingrad

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    In 1942 some of the fiercest combat ever took place in the monumental battle between the German and Russian armies. The ground was covered with bombs and artillery shells; almost all of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble.
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  6. S1 E6 - Survival At Stalingrad

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    During the fighting for Stalingrad, the defenders of the city took an oath: "There is no land for us beyond the Volga."
    Available to buy
  7. S1 E7 - The World's Greatest Tank Battle

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    In July of 1943 the largest armored battle in history took place in Kursk. Hitler planned to annihilate the Soviet army at Kursk and make one final effort to win the war in the east.
    Available to buy
  8. S1 E8 - War In The Arctic

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    In World War II the Russians were fighting along a 2,000-mile line that extended from the Black Sea to a point beyond the Arctic Circle. Arms and supplies from the US and Great Britain came by convoy to the ice-free seaport of Murmansk.
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  9. S1 E9 - War In The Air

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    In a surprise attack on June 22 of 1941, German forces destroyed more than two-thirds of the Soviet combat aircraft fleet while they were still stationed on the ground.
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  10. S1 E10 - Partisans: The Guerrilla War

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    When Napoleon captured Moscow in 1812, Russia's men and women turned the French invaders' lives into a living hell. The same thing happened in 1941 when Hitler's legions smashed into the Soviet Union and vast areas of Russian land fell into their hands.
    Available to buy
  11. S1 E11 - The Battle Of The Seas

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    The Russians fought Hitler at sea -- in the Baltic, in the Gulf of Finland, in the Black Sea, the Arctic and even on inland lakes and rivers.
    Available to buy
  12. S1 E12 - Battle For The Caucasus

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    In 1943 Novorossiysk, at the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, was the southernmost tip of the Soviet front. At the same time the Battle of Stalingrad was taking place, in the summer of 1942, the Battle for the Caucasus began.
    Available to buy
  13. S1 E13 - The Liberation Of The Ukraine

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    In the late summer of 1941 the Soviet army was forced to retreat from Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine. For more than two years, the Nazis occupied the city and virtually destroyed it.
    Available to buy
  14. S1 E14 - The Liberation Of Belorussia

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    The Nazis occupied the northwestern part of the Soviet Union for three years during the Unknown War. In 1944 the Soviets launched a massive attack to free the area that swept through Belorussia, and the Soviet troops continued westward, across the German frontier.
    Available to buy
  15. S1 E15 - From The Balkans To Vienna

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    After the Soviets won back their own country, they pushed westward to release other countries from German occupation. The final victory was not won until the Soviet forces freed Vienna.
    Available to buy
  16. S1 E16 - The Liberation Of Poland

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    Situated in central Europe, Poland was a geographical corridor for invasion and war. During World War II Poland suffered enormously; six million Poles lost their lives.
    Available to buy
  17. S1 E17 - The Allies

    January 1, 1978
    49min
    13+
    The Allied effort in World War II was designed by three men: Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.
    Available to buy
  18. S1 E18 - The Battle Of Berlin

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    To the Soviet army, the capture of Berlin was the culmination of their drive to avenge the ravaging of their homeland. As the Soviets were fighting their way into the heart of the city, Hitler mobilized his last reserves.
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  19. S1 E19 - The Last Battle Of The Unknown War

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    The Second World War ended in Europe in May of 1945, but the war in the Far East raged on.
    Available to buy
  20. S1 E20 - A Soldier Of The Unknown War

    January 1, 1978
    50min
    13+
    The Unknown War was an Allied war. For the Russians, the victory had a special meaning. This was a war in which 20 million Russians died, possibly more.
    Available to buy

Details

More info

Content advisory

Violencesmoking

Subtitles

None available

Directors

Igor GrigoryevIgor GueleinIlya GutmanRoman KarmenTengiz SemenovLev DanilovDzhemma FirsovaZoya FominaVassily KatanianSiemen Kisselov

Cast

Burt LancasterAverell Harriman

Studio

Shout! Factory
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