A Cossack punches his love rival while empires crumble around him — priorities, am I right?
A chronicle of life in a small village in the Baikal Region on the eve of World War I and at the time of the October Revolution. The age-old foundations are crumbling, the process of social stratification is underway and, as a result, some people go to defend the revolution, and others - to fight against it. The main hero is the young Cossack Roman Ulybin. At first, this carefree daredevil is preoccupied only with one problem: whether his sweetheart, Dashutka, is to marry him or a merchant’s son, Alyoshka. Roman is killing time fist-fighting with his rival. But little by little, the young man realizes that the world around him has changed, that people are fighting for equality and social justice, and, being a real Cossack, he can’t remain on the sidelines…
Cinematography
Baikal landscapes that swallow human drama whole.
Acting
Solomin's transformation from brawler to believer hits hard.
Production
Massive crowd scenes with actual Soviet resources behind them.
Director
Viktor Tregubovich
Arkadi Trusov
grandfather Andrey
Petr Shelokhonov
Severian
Vera Kuznetsova
Avdotia
Vitali Solomin
Roman
Vasiliy Shukshin
Vasily
Fyodor Odinokov
Epifan Kozulin
Lyubov Malinovskaya
Agrafena
Svetlana Golovina
Dashutka
Efim Kopelyan
Elisey Kargin
Boris Arakelov
Mitka
Viktor Pavlov
Nikifor
Vladimir Losev
Aleksey
Yuriy Solomin
Semyon Nagorny
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Vasiliy Shukshin, who plays Vasily, was a famous Soviet writer-director who died mysteriously just two years later at 47.
The film was part of 1970s USSR 'village prose' movement — official art that subtly mourned what revolution destroyed.
SU
