The man who launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit—while Stalin's shadow still lingered.
A story about the life of Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer.
Acting
Grishko channels Korolyov's exhaustion and barely contained brilliance.
Production
Recreated Soviet command centers feel oppressively authentic.
Director
Yuriy Kara
Valeriy Grishko
Сергей Королёв
Boris Shcherbakov
Валентин Глушко
Lidiya Arefeva
Нина Ивановна, жена С. П. Королёва
Fyodor Lavrov
Алексей Леонов
Boris Kamorzin
Н. С. Хрущёв
Anatoliy Kotenyov
Л. И. Брежнев
Vadim Andreyev
Сталин
Alexander Kuznetsov
Д. Ф. Устинов
Sergey Nikonenko
Борис Бещев
Yuriy Nazarov
Василий Вознюк
Yuriy Tsurilo
Георгий Шубников
Valery Afanasyev
Kozlov
Irina Valts
Валентина Ивановна, жена Ю. Гагарина
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Valeriy Grishko spent months studying Korolyov's actual speech patterns from rare archival recordings.
Director Yuriy Kara was blacklisted in the 1980s; this was his first state-approved historical epic, explaining its careful balancing of criticism and patriotism.
RU
