Yasha, who likes Anna, accomodates siberian Pavel Kuganov, which later becomes a class-conscious worker in a factory. Anna refuses Yasha's offer of marriage and he therefore runs off to Siberia. After Pavel is hailed as a hero because he survives a fire accident in factory (which is in fact effect of his sabotage), Anna marries him. Pavel then becomes a reckless communist careerist, but only on surface. In fact, he is a traitor of the country and a spy, and gives Anna's party ID card to anti-communist movement. In spite of that, Anna is expelled from the communist party. Yasha returns from Siberia, only to find her love Anna desperate. They reveal the truth about Pavel (that he is a kulak who killed a kolchoz co-op leader), which means an end for Pavel.
Acting
Ada Vojtsik's tragic Anna, punished for a man's crimes.
Direction
Pyryev's pivot from comedy to state-approved moral panic.
Director
Ivan Pyryev
Ada Vojtsik
Anna
Andrei Abrikosov
Pavel Kurganov
Anatoli Goryunov
Fyodor Ivanovich
Igor Maleyev
Yasha
Ivan Novoseltsev
Chekist
Sergei Antimonov
Philip Maksimovich Kulikov, Anna's father (uncredited)
Vladimir Uralskiy
Meeting participant
Mariya Yarotskaya
Varvara Polikarpovna
Inna Fyodorova
Tanya
Ivan Bobrov
Kuganov's Brother
Yelizaveta Chesnokova
Cleaner Maria
Sergei Tsenin
Resident
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Great Purge's opening act, this film's paranoia about hidden enemies reflected real state terror. Pyryev would later thrive under Stalin, directing beloved musicals—this was his ideological audition.
SU
