the TV mini-series Soldiers of Freedom. Ozerov was not allowed to deal with the early, dark chapters of the war in Liberation due to political pressure, and Soldiers of Freedom revolved around the battles outside the Soviet Union. For the 40th year to the victory over Germany, Ozerov intended to create a film about the first stages on the war, from the beginning of the invasion on 22 June 1941 until the Wehrmacht's defeat near Moscow. Unlike Liberation, Ozerov's most acclaimed work, Battle of Moscow was a purely historical film, with no fictional characters included in the plot. The actors selected to portray the main roles were mostly ones who already appeared as such in the director's earlier works, especially Mikhail Ulyanov who depicted Zhukov in all of Ozerov's films. Eventually, the production involved a crew of some six thousand people. The German-speaking actors were contacted through DEFA, while the scenes involving Richard Sorge were shot in Vietnam with the assistance of the Fafim studio. Marshal Sergei Rudenko served as the chief military consultant of the movie; the battle scenes involved troops from the Red Army as extras. The filming of the open-door battle scenes took place in Czechoslovakia, but the urban combat was shot Moscow itself: buildings in the wrecked parts of the city were demolished with explosives to simulate bomber attacks. The film premiered in the Moscow Film Festival. Reception Yuri Ozerov won the Grand Prize in the 1986 Alma Ata All-Union Film Festival for his work on the film, as well as the Alexander Dovzhenko Golden Medal. Russian film critic Alexander Fedorov called the movie "a large-scale war production typical of Yuri Ozerov" which presents Stalin as a wise leader, and depicts Zhukov as a brilliant general. Fedorov also commented on the battle scenes, describing them as "impressive... involving tanks, airplanes and artillery." Cast Yakov Tripolski as Joseph Stalin. Anatoly Nikitin as Mikhail Kalinin. Nikolai Zasukhin as Vyacheslav Molotov. Vyacheslav Ezepov as Alexander Shcherbakov. Vladimir Troshin as Kliment Voroshilov. Stepan Mikoyan as Anastas Mikoyan. Evgeni Novikov as Nikolay Shvernik. Achim Petri as Adolf Hitler. Olegar Fedoro as People's Commisar. Rostislav Yankovsky as General Vasily Smirnov. Mikhail Ulyanov as Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Aleksandr Filippenko as General Dmitry Pavlov. Bruno Freindlich as Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov. Yury Yakovlev as General Leonid Petrovsky. Juozas Budraitis as Richard Sorge. Aleksandr Goloborodko as General Konstantin Rokossovsky. Vitali Rozstalnoi as Marshal Semyon Timoshenko. Emanuil