Sergey Papov

Short story "Metel" from "Belkin Tales".

A Russian scientist spends a year documenting the natural world in Central Asia.

Heroes of Shipka was the first solo effort for Soviet director Sergei Vasilyev, who had previously collaborated with his late brother Georgi. As head of the Leningrad Film Studios, Vasilyev was obliged to traffic in propaganda, but he never forgot how to make his material entertaining. The film is set in 1887 during the pivotal battle between the Russians and the Turks at the Shipka Pass. Stressing the solidarity of the Soviet states, tribute is paid to the courageous Bulgarian volunteers who helped the Russians fend off their mutual enemy. American critics were impressed by Heroes of Shipka, but felt that the film would have been twice as effective had it been lensed in Cinemascope rather than "standard aspect."

1919 year. There is a civil war in Siberia. Taking advantage of the complete confusion, Admiral Kolchak wants to export part of the country's gold reserves abroad. At the very last moment the Bolsheviks find out about it. They decide to intercept the train, but do not have time to properly prepare the operation... The girl Nadya, in whom the head of the train is passionately in love, can save the situation. Several kilometers of railway tracks to the border become a battlefield between white and red.

High in the mountains, a lonely plane tree grows on a rock. The legend says that in ancient times, the beautiful girl Aisulu threw herself from this cliff, not wanting to reconcile herself with fate and get the unloved one. So, as a memory of her, a beautiful plane tree has grown in this place ... Drawing the images of our contemporaries, showing Aisula of our days, who has become a victim of gossip and prejudice due to cowardice, cowardice and moral betrayal of her two men, the authors of the film affect great moral - ethical issues.

During the Great Patriotic War, battalion commander Pavel Akimov fell in love with the military translator Anechka Belozerova, but the circumstances of military life separated them.

The year is 1940 and Nazi Germany is at the height of its military prowess, having captured most of Europe and eyeing the Soviet Union to the East. The Russian military command suspects hostile intent from Germany and so arranges for its spies to infiltrate ranks of the German military and the SS. Alexander Belov is a Russian spy, who travels from Soviet-held Latvia to Nazi Germany under an alias of Johann Weiss. His mastery of the German language, steel nerves and an ability to manipulate others help him to use his connections in the SS to ascend the ladder of the German intelligence. He uses his position to identify sympathetic Germans, who help him to procure vital intelligence, and to help local resistance movements in their collective fight against Nazism.