Late October 1942. Building 6/1 is a former apartment building in the centre of Stalingrad, being held by a rag-tag band of Russian soldiers against all the odds, in the teeth of the German advance.

Soon the building, and its charismatic Commander, Captain Grekov, are a legend across Russia. But inside the building, Commissar Krymov has arrived to tackle what appears to be subversion, while the radio operator, Katya, falls in love with his nephew, Seryozha.

Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant star in Vasily Grossman’s epic saga.

Captain Grekov ..... Joseph Millson
Commissar Krymov ..... David Tennant
Vasya ..... Stephen Hogan
Katya ..... Katie Angelou
Lyakhov ..... Carl Prekopp
Polyakov ..... Peter Polycarpou
Seryozha Shaposhnikov ..... Freddie Fox
Batrakov ..... James Lailey
Zubarev ..... Gerard McDermott
Bunchuk ..... Jonathan Forbes

Dramatised by Jonathan Myerson.

Director: Jonquil Panting

Producer: Alison Hindell

Set against the ferocious Battle of Stalingrad, this huge novel charts the fate of both a nation and a family in the turmoil of war and is increasingly hailed as the most important Russian novel of the 20th century. Its comparison of Stalinism with Nazism was considered by Soviet authorities to be so dangerous that the manuscript itself was arrested. Grossman died in 1964, never knowing that his book would be smuggled to the West and eventually published in 1980.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011. Show less