In the summer of 1936 in the Soviet Union, Comdiv Sergei Petrovich Kotov, his wife Maroussia and their young daughter Nadia are relaxing in a Banya (sauna) when a peasant from the local Collective farming frantically tells them the Red Army's tanks are about to crush the wheat harvest as part of general Military exercise. Kotov rides out to order the tank officer to halt. Kotov carries authority as a senior Old Bolshevik and legendary hero of the Russian Civil War, and is also very popular with the common people and local villagers.