Two Comrades Were Serving

Two Comrades Were Serving (Служили два товарища, translit. Sluzhili dva tovarishcha) is a 1968 Soviet war film directed by Yevgeny Karelov with a script by Yuli Dunsky and Valeri Frid. The film is about the Russian Civil War, in particular, the battle for the Crimean peninsula.

Plot
Two comrades and soldiers of the Red Army, Andrei Nekrasov (O. Yankovsky) and Ivan Karyakin (R. Bykov) were sent by their regimental commander (A. Papanov) on a reconnaissance mission to film the White Army fortifications on the way into Crimea (Perekop). After filming, the engine on their airplane stalled and they were forced to land in unfriendly territory.

As the culmination of a series of misadventures, the friends were going to be executed, as spies by their own side. The Colonel appears in time to stop the firing squad.

The second part of the film narrates the assault on Perekop and the Red Army invasion of the Crimea.

The film also features Vladimir Vysotsky as Brusentsov, a cynical and disillusioned officer in Wrangel's Army. He shot Nekrasov down at the end of the film. Karyakin hums his friend's favorite song - "The bullet whizzed and aha!..". Vysotsky's character later shot himself during the Evacuation to Constantinople.

The film's focus is the friendship between two decidedly different characters. Nekrasov is intelligent and war-weary, while Karyakin is simple-minded, yet idealistic and energetic.

Cast

 * Oleg Yankovsky as Andrei Nekrasov
 * Rolan Bykov as Ivan Karyakin
 * Anatoli Papanov as regiment commander
 * Nikolai Kryuchkov as platoon commander
 * Alla Demidova as Commissar
 * Vladimir Vysotsky as Alexander Brusentsov
 * Iya Savvina as Alexandra
 * Nikolai Burlyayev as Sergey Lukashevich
 * Pyotr Krylov as chief of staff
 * Rostislav Yankovsky as Colonel Vasilchikov
 * Roman Tkachuk as White Guard officer
 * Nikolai Parfyonov as White Guard officer
 * Juozas Budraitis as member of  Red Staff
 * Veniamin Smekhov as Baron Krause

Production
The theme song was included on Lubeh's 1995 album, Kombat.