The Unknown War (documentary)

The Unknown War
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Written by	Rod McKuen (script adaptation)
Directed by	Isaac Kleinerman, Roman Karmen
Narrated by	Burt Lancaster
Country of origin	USSR, United Kingdom, USA
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	1040 min
Release
Picture format	B/W & Color
Audio format	mono
Original release	22 June 1978
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

The Unknown War (Russian: "Великая Отечественная" (The Great Patriotic War) or "Неизвестная война" (The Unknown War) is an American documentary television series. The 20-part series documents the World War II conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The show was produced and syndicated for international distribution by Air Time International, and the executive producer was Fred Weiner. Each episode is about 48 minutes long, similar in format to The World at War. The footage was edited from over 3.5 million feet of film taken by Soviet camera crews from the first day of the war, 22 June 1941, to the Soviet entry into Berlin in May 1945. Most of these films have never been seen outside this documentary series.

The series is hosted by Academy Award Winner Burt Lancaster, who spent three weeks in eight cities in the USSR for location filming. Film footage from Soviet archives comprises a major portion of the series, supplemented by film from both the United States and British archives. Appearing in exclusive interviews would be Russian Commanders like Georgi Zhukov and Vasily Chuikov. Other interviews shot for the series included Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev and Averell Harriman, who was U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union during WWII.

The series was produced with Soviet cooperation after the release of The World at War, which the Soviet government felt paid insufficient attention to their part in World War II. Released in 1978, The Unknown War is sympathetic to the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany. It was quickly withdrawn from TV airings after it ran in 1978, possibly because its tone was at odds with the growing tensions between East and West after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Later it returned to airings on cable, including A&E, the History Channel and YouTube.

Episodes

1. June 22, 1941
2. The Battle for Moscow
3. The Siege of Leningrad
4. To the East
5. The Defense of Stalingrad
6. Survival at Stalingrad
7. The World's Greatest Tank Battle
8. War in the Arctic
9. War in the Air
10. The Partisans
11. The Battle of the Seas
12. The Battle of Caucasus
13. Liberation of the Ukraine
14. The Liberation of Belorussia
15. The Balkans to Vienna
16. The Liberation of Poland
17. The Allies
18. The Battle of Berlin
19. The Last Battle of the Unknown War
20. A Soldier of the Unknown War

Soundtrack

The series has a recurrent theme song written by Rod McKuen and "Birch-tree's dreams" ("Берёзовые сны") by G. Fere (Г. Фере) and V. Geviksman (В. Гевиксман).

See also

• Alexandrov Ensemble soloists (song by Geviksman and Fere)

External links

• The Unknown War at IMDb