Two Comrades Were Serving

Two Comrades Were Serving

Directed by Yevgeni Karelov
Written by Yuli Dunsky
Valeri Frid
Starring Oleg Yankovsky
Rolan Bykov
Anatoli Papanov
Vladimir Vysotsky
Music by Yevgeni Ptichkin
Cinematography Mikhail Ardabyevsky
Viktor Belokopytov
Distributed by Mosfilm
Creative Union "Comrade"
Release date
  • 1968 (1968)
Running time
 93 min.
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian

Two Comrades Were Serving (Russian: Служили два товарища, translit. Sluzhili dva tovarishcha) is a 1968 Soviet war film directed by Yevgeni Karelov with a script by Yuli Dunsky and Valeri Frid. The film is about the Russian civil war, in particular, the battle for the Crimean peninsula.

Plot

Two comrades and soldiers of the Red Army, Andrei Nekrasov (O. Yankovsky) and Ivan Karyakin (R. Bykov) were sent by their regimental commander (A. Papanov) on a reconnaissance mission to film the White Army fortifications on the way into Crimea (Perekop). After filming, the engine on their airplane stalled and they were forced to land in unfriendly territory.

As the culmination of a series of misadventures, the friends were going to be executed as spies by their own side. The Colonel appears in time to stop the firing squad.

The second part of the film narrates the assault on Perekop and the Red Army invasion of the Crimea.

The film also features Vladimir Vysotsky as Brusentsov, a cynical and disillusioned officer in Wrangel's Army. He shot Nekrasov down at the end of the film. Karyakin hums his friend's favorite song - "The bullet whizzed and aha!..". Vysotsky's character later shot himself during the evacuation to Constantinople.

The film's focus is the friendship between two decidedly different characters. Nekrasov is intelligent and war-weary, while Karyakin is simple-minded, yet idealistic and energetic.

Cast

Production

Both screenwriters had been in the Gulags and drew on their experience for much of the dialogue.

The theme song was included on Lubeh's 1995 album, Kombat.

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