The children's and youth film "Steel" is being filmed in Senno
– During the search for information about the tank battle, we met local historian Vasily Bondarevich, who provided so much information that, in support of the large film, we decided to make a documentary, – says screenwriter Artyom Kokin.
Its main hero is Vasily Bondarevich himself. According to the plot, he is writing a book about the battle and, to illustrate the work, asks his students to cycle to memorable places and take photographs.
Ninth-graders Arina Dolgaya and Maxim Trukhanenko act as young assistants. Previously, the children studied together at Secondary School No. 2 in Senno; now Maxim continues his education at the Vitebsk Cadet School. They say that participating in the filming is difficult but interesting. While Maxim learned about the tank battle near Senno from school lessons, Arina gleaned almost all the information from the stories of her uncle Oleg Ustinovich. He heads the motorcycle club "Night Wolves Belarus," is interested in history, and assists the film crew. The journey of Maxim and Arina is accompanied by Vasily Bondarevich's narration about the battle, and newsreels and photographs from the war years will also be used.
The producer of the "Steel" project, Dmitry Murashev, notes that the documentary will allow for a more detailed exploration of the history of the Senno battle and should attract maximum attention to the main film, which is being shot with donations from people who care about history.
By the way, the film "28 Panfilovites" was also created through crowdfunding. A little later, the Ministry of Culture of Russia, the government of Kazakhstan, and other interested structures joined. The premiere of the film about the Panfilov heroes is scheduled for November 24. In this film, Dmitry Murashev, one of the leading actors of the Bolshoi Drama Theater of St. Petersburg, plays the role of armor-piercer Konkin.
Screenwriter Artyom Kokin, who was the chief military-historical consultant for "The 28 Panfilovites," says that the film became a breakthrough in Russian cinema and was the first to be funded by public donations. During the work on it, the idea arose to repeat the experience and make a film about one of the largest tank battles near Senno.
According to the concept, "Steel" will be filmed in the genre of children's and youth cinema, with two storylines forming the basis of the script.
…A boy lives in an acting family. His father is successful and famous, his mother is less fortunate in her profession. For this reason, the parents constantly quarrel. One day, the mother takes her son and drives from Saint Petersburg to her hometown of Senno. Almost the entire way, the boy plays a computer game "Tanks" on his tablet, for which he constantly receives reprimands. Finally, he gets tired of it, and at one of the stops near Senno, he runs away. Lost in the forest, the boy finds a BT-7 tank from the Great Patriotic War, and inside it – the diary and letters of the commander to his relatives.
The historical storyline is based on the fate of junior lieutenant Ivan Kolosov, who died near Vyazma in 1941. His tank was found in 1972, as reported by the newspaper "Pravda." While breaking out of encirclement, the combat vehicle single-handedly destroyed several enemy columns. When two crew members died, the wounded Ivan hid the tank in the forest. Before his death, he wrote his last letter to his fiancée: "Hello, my Varya! No, we will not see each other. Yesterday at noon, we were destroying another Hitlerite column. A fascist shell pierced the side armor and exploded inside. While I was driving the vehicle into the forest, Vasily died (gunner Vasily Orlov. – Ed. note), I buried him in a birch grove. My wound is severe. At dusk, I entered the forest. The night was spent in agony, much blood was lost. Now, for some reason, the pain that burns through my entire chest has subsided, and my soul is at peace."
This autumn, it is planned to shoot the Saint Petersburg scenes. In the future, location shooting will also take place in Senno. Using modern technologies, filmmakers want to recreate the pre-war appearance of the city with its dominant feature – the 18th-century Holy Trinity Church, which was demolished in 1962.
Reference. At dawn on July 6, the troops of the 20th Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Pavel Kurochkin, launched a counterattack from the area northwest of Orsha against the flank of the enemy's 3rd Tank Group. The 7th and 5th Mechanized Corps, which had about 1,000 tanks of older types, participated in the operation. The Germans had approximately the same amount of equipment.
In fierce battles, our tank crews inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and pushed them back 30-40 km towards Lepel. The most intense battles took place in the vicinity of Senno. By the end of the day, Soviet tank formations managed to completely capture this settlement. However, holding the city proved difficult: the next day it changed hands three times, but by the evening it was still under the control of the Red Army. The Germans threw all their reserves into the assault, and on July 8, after bloody battles, Soviet troops had to abandon Senno.
Despite the fact that the Lepel counterattack did not achieve its goal, the Soviet tank units managed to temporarily push the enemy back several tens of kilometers and draw a significant reserve of theirs away. Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who commanded a howitzer battery, was captured near Senno.
Sergey Lyashuk. Photo by Anton Stepanishchev. "Vitebskiye Vesti".