Enemy At The Gates - Research Paper
Enemy At The Gates Vassili Zaitsev was a common boy raised by his uncle in the Urals of Russia, a very rural part of the country. His uncle taught him to shoot and hunt at a very early age. In 1943, when Germany invaded Russia he was drafted into the Red Army, and was sent to the front lines at Stalingrad. At Stalingrad he was put into a suicidal assault against the Germans where every other man was given a gun and the other man just 5 rounds of ammunition. He was given the ammunition instead of the gun so as he rushed the German positions he never had possession of a gun. The Germans obviously mowed them down as they rushed forward, but Vassili survived and hid himself at the bottom of a statue covered with dead bodies. This is where he first met Danilov, a propaganda and media sergeant. Danilov was driving a car through the dense German lines to try to spread propaganda leaflets, but a tank fired a shell next to his car and caused him to flip right next to Vassili’s hiding spot. They hid there for a few minutes while the Germans searched for him. After the Germans left, Danilov and Vassili spotted two high ranking German commanders and 3 soldiers in a blown up building next to the statue they were hiding at.