A detective who should've stayed in school vs. German spies in pre-war Russia — what could go wrong?
The story concerns the events in Saint Petersburg on the eve of the First World War. Private detective Petya Chukhontsev, a law student who has not completed his studies, investigates the case of the murdered inventor Kuklin. He was murdered exactly as he predicted during a New Year's visit to Chukhontsev. While investigating the Kuklin case, Petya soon realizes that the central figure in this case is the German Scholz, the owner, who cheaply buys up the inventions of Russian craftsmen and hands them over to the spy Siegfried Gay, an advisor to the German embassy. . However, Petya will soon understand that it is better to mind his own business...
Acting
Oleg Efremov's scene-stealing turn as the weary Zanzeveev
Production
Lovingly recreated 1914 Saint Petersburg atmosphere on Soviet budget
Director
Vitaliy Melnikov
Mikhail Morozov
Chukhontsev
Oleg Efremov
Zanzeveev
Boris Plotnikov
Kuklin
Yuri Bogatyryov
Major Gei
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Member of counter-intelligence
Sergey Shakurov
Scholtz
Mikhail Kononov
Former detective
Nikolay Kryuchkov
Policeman
Leonid Kuravlyov
Count
Olga Mashnaya
Wanda's maid
Sergey Migitsko
Colonel Bobrin
Grażyna Szapołowska
Wanda
Vladimir Maksimov
Mikhail Birbrayer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during perestroika, this reflects glasnost-era openness about pre-revolutionary Russia and even German villains — unthinkable in earlier Soviet cinema.
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy's cameo as counter-intelligence was a deliberate nod to his iconic Soviet spy roles; his brief appearance anchors the film in genre tradition.
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