 Compiled from newsreel footage taken by uncredited Soviet cameramen, the film shows scenes of life in the Soviet Union during the Winter Campaign of 1941. Cossack troops and guerilla bands are seen in action, women behind the lines are shown catching fish and building tanks for the troops, civilians and soldiers together are seen pledging large portions of their wages back to the government as loans to fund the war, Nazi airmen and troops are captured and one is shown calling on his countrymen to surrender (which some do using "passes to admit the bearer" to sanctity in the Soviet Union which the Soviet army drops behind the enemy lines), the means of getting mail and reading matter to the front lines are examined, the Nazi destruction of historic buildings such as the homes of Tolstoy and Tschaikowsky are shown... to the front is shown