The 20-part series documents the World War II conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The series is hosted by Academy Award winner Burt Lancaster, who spent three weeks in eight cities in the USSR for location filming.

Other interviews shot for the series included Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Averell Harriman, who was U.S.

After the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, several American TV stations, responding to public outcry, temporarily halted airings.

[3] The series has a recurrent theme song " Toward the Unknown " written by Rod McKuen and "Birch-tree's dreams" ("Берёзовые сны") by G. Fere (Г. Фере) and V. Geviksman (В. Гевиксман).