This Russian documentary, which first aired on Russian TV in 2011, is very similar to western documentaries that cover WWII, except (naturally) it focuses on Russian efforts on the Eastern Front. It's well-made, for this type of show, and it goes into quite a lot of detail. I'd call it a must-see for any westerner interested in a part of WWII that is (quite understandably) usually sparsely covered in western-centric WWII documentaries.

My only complaint is that both the CGI and live-action reenactments are sometimes lacking in production value, so I'm not giving it five stars. But there's nothing about those minor faults to bother any history buff, and the lack of quality is pretty well made up for by the sheer quantity of CGI and live-action that they put into this. And as Stalin (may have) said, quantity has a quality of its own.

If you are like me and want to learn different sides of history during WW2. Especially the front that determined the outcome of the war in Europe. This is it this is where it all happened that led to the downfall of Hitler. Not on the Western Front, it played a role but did not bind up most of the German Army it was the Eastern Front, where the people of the Soviet Union brought about the end of Hitler, at an immense cost of life and people. I will say it has things I do not like in it but it was made from the Russians, for the Russians, and they try to find any glory in the GPW, they still can but I guess with being a Westerner it just does not have the same appeal it would to someone from Russia. Non the less I would say watch this series I remember hearing about it in 2015 and watched it and i really enjoyed it I have been waiting for it to come to Amazon.

Over the years, I've concentrated my interest about WWII in the Europe and Pacific Theaters. But as I watch this, I'm blown away by the story of USSR's defense during the German invasion called "Barbarossa." This documentary style series, mixing movie footage, reenactment, and the best computer-generated battle scenes I've ever seen, make this a must-see for any WWII buff. Narration is great, map animation is excellent.
This is war at it's most desperate and brutal.

A wealth of historical information is given in this series. It was enthralling to see the details of the WWII eastern front that is not taught in standard American history courses (which is a shame because here you learn the true how and why of the Nazis defeat). Although the Cyrillic maps are hard to follow at times, this is a simple translation from a Russian TV series so I can't dock points for that. Well done!

Good detailed battle info. It only became possible to produce this after KGB archives were opened.

Much better than I expected. Worth watching if you're interested in learning more about the Soviets in WW2 and their strategy. Don't expect much actual war footage though, most of it is some basic acting and a lot of cgi scenes, but the narration is great and I found that it to be very entertaining overall.

better than I expected

weird CGI. I would prefer to see actually documentary footage