Lazar Antsi-Polovskiy

The young serf Eremey Mizgir is surrendered as a soldier by his mistress for his mischievous tricks. Mizgir ends up in St. Petersburg in the guards regiment. Resourceful, quick-witted, cheerful, he easily copes with his official duties and, although he often gets punished by the sergeant-major for his pranks, he never loses heart. But then sad news came from the village: the old people’s cow had died, and Eremey’s bride Dunya was being relentlessly pursued by the clerk. The soldier felt sad. Standing on guard at the rich, diamond-studded icon of the Kazan Mother of God and thinking about how to help the elderly and the bride, Mizgir decides to take a desperate step. He breaks the glass of the icon and picks out a large gemstone from the aureole of the Mother of God. When the loss is discovered, Mizgir, without blinking an eye, announces that the Mother of God herself gave him the stone.

The propaganda documentary about the readiness of the Red Army to repulse any enemy is based on documentary shots taken during the real maneuvers of the Red Army. Armadas of tanks, immense columns of infantry, dozens of fighters and bombers, thousands of cavalry, legendary divisions of the Civil War. The film glorifies Soviet military power and shows the Soviet people what the war will be like when the imperialists attack the USSR — quick, victorious, almost bloodless.