Russian Embassy has hosted yet another Russian Movie Night event, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Dnieper and liberation of the left-bank Ukraine from Nazis.

Participants of the event were introduced to the iconic Soviet war drama ‘Only ‘Old Men’ Are Going Into Battle.’

Ambassador of Russia to South Africa H.E. Mr. Ilya Rogachev opened the event with a brief review of history of the Battle and the movie’s artistic features.

‘Essentially, the film is based on true events of the Great Patriotic War, which took place in different aviation units of the Soviet Air Force. The director used the method of artistic synthesis, bringing those events together in one movie,’ Ilya Rogachev said.

Ambassador further drew guests’ attention to the problem of history rewriting. In present-day Ukraine the Battle of the Dnieper is being turned into an anti-Russian myth which has nothing to do with real history. All those sick ideas have been debunked by scholars, he said. ‘Victory over Nazis in the Battle of the Dnieper was achieved – and today’s movie proves it – by joint efforts of peoples of the Soviet Union – Ukrainians, Russians, Uzbeks, Moldovans, Georgians and others,’ – the Ambassador emphasized.

The Battle of the Dnieper took place in August – December of 1943. This major campaign of WW2 consisted of several strategic operations and involved over 4 million participants from both sides, As a result of the 4-months battle, almost entire left-bank Ukraine was recovered from Nazi invaders.