July 1942. Having lost a large number of soldiers in battles, the Soviet rifle regiment retreats to Stalingrad. During the halt, the soldiers talk on different topics, bathe and sleep. One of the soldiers of the regiment, Pyotr Lopakhin (Vasily Shukshin), 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 asks an old Cossack woman (Angelina Stepanova), but stumbles upon a contemptuous attitude, as the soldiers retreat, in fact leaving the locals to fend for themselves. After a difficult conversation, in which it turns out that behind the mask of a merry fellow, Lopakhin is hiding a serious person who is deeply worried about the fate of his country, the old woman fulfills Lopakhin's request.

The command gives the task to occupy and hold the height in the middle of the steppe. With difficulty digging out trenches in the stony ground, the regiment's soldiers equip positions and repel the first tank attack with grenades and anti-tank rifles. Before the second wave, German aircraft bombed the positions of the regiment, as a result of which many fighters were killed, and Private Nikolai Streltsov (Vyacheslav Tikhonov), a friend of Lopakhin, received a severe concussion. The second German tank attack becomes almost successful, but the arriving Soviet reinforcements push the enemy back.

The regiment walks at night through a burning wheat field. Private Ivan Zvyagintsev (Sergei Bondarchuk), a former combine operator, is horrified at the amount of damage caused by the war.

Having reached the next farm, the fighters are preparing for battle, and Lopakhin, flirting with local women, gets milk. In the next battle, he also knocks down a German attack aircraft Junkers Ju 87 from an ATGM, which explodes, sticking into a hill.

After a while, in another place, the regiment again engages in battle with enemy tanks. Tanks crush the positions of the defenders: a young corporal Kochetygov dies with the death of the brave, having managed to set fire to the tank with his last breath with a bottle of combustible mixture. Soviet soldiers rush into a counterattack, during which Private Zvyagintsev is seriously wounded by shrapnel from an artillery mine. The Germans are in retreat, and a young, fragile nurse (Tatiana Bozhok) pulls out a large ("before the war - 93 kilograms") Zvyagintsev from the battlefield. Having buried the last officer in the regiment (lieutenant; Nikolai Gubenko), the regiment moves on again. During a halt, Private Nekrasov (Yuri Nikulin), the father of four children, amuses the soldiers with a funny story about how he accidentally frightened a decrepit old woman who decided that he would bother her at night. In the medical battalion of Zvyagintsev, they operate without anesthesia, removing numerous fragments from the legs and back.

The regiment is located in another village, but there is no food in the pantry, and the locals refuse to feed the retreating soldiers. Lopakhin makes an attempt to charm the inaccessible-looking villager - Natalya (Nonna Mordyukova) - 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 teeming with food and concludes that his plan was still a success. Natalya bitterly replies to him that she has a husband, who is now in the hospital, and the local women cooked the food only because the foreman of the regiment told the local chairman that his soldiers had recently fought the enemy in a difficult battle. Natalya adds that the locals are ready to give up everything, if only the soldiers would protect them.

Lopakhin notices Nikolai Streltsov in the crowd. It turns out that he escaped from the medical battalion. Despite complete deafness and concussion, Streltsov joins his comrades in arms. The arriving colonel (Evgeny Samoilov) sincerely thanks the soldiers and kisses the regiment's banner, which was carefully guarded throughout the film. Large forces of Soviet troops are moving towards Stalingrad.

☆Vasily Shukshin ☆Vyacheslav Tikhonov ☆Sergei Bondarchuk

www.imdb.com/title/tt0073488/

FOLOMKIN BORIS ALEKSEEVICH (1928-2002)

Soviet poster artist. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Member of the first professional association of poster artists.


Born June 12, 1928. Lived in Moscow. He was engaged in political and social posters, worked in "Reklafilm". Author of many movie posters such as: "Adjutant of His Excellency" (1971), "Fearless Ataman" (1973), "Hello and Goodbye" (1973), "Mimino" (1977), "On the Day of the Holiday" (1978), "Postal Novel" ( 1981), The Golden Fleece (1982), Lenin and Siberia (1982). The posters created by Folomkin are kept in the State Central Museum of Cinema (GTsMK).