A stolen brooch, a suspicious stepmother, and three brothers who might be more than family — Soviet melodrama goes full soap opera.
50 minSeason 1 • Episode 19
LatestApril 1959. Tanya Meshcherskaya, who grew up in an orphanage, goes to Moscow to her father, academician Viktor Ryabinsky. She has a letter with her and an antique brooch left over from her mother, which is being stolen. Vikenty is happy to find a daughter, as he loved her mother, but his wife takes Tanya with hostility. She tries to find out the details from Vikenty's sister, but she doubts that Vikenty is Tanya's father.
Production
1959 Moscow recreated with obsessive detail — down to the wallpaper.
Acting
Elena Safonova as the frostbitten stepmother — magnificent ice queen.
Costume
Orphanage drab to academic luxury — class told through fabric.
Creators
Aleksandr Kott, Zinoviy Royzman
Angelina Poplavskaya
Таня Мещерская
Aleksandr Baluev
Георгий Рябинский
Elena Safonova
Киса, Ксения Рябинская
Vladislav Vetrov
Викентий Рябинский
Artem Krylov
Борис Рябинский
Anar
Сергей Рябинский
Galina Polskikh
Дуся
Ivan Kolesnikov
Эдик
Yuriy Tsurilo
маршал
Andrey Rudensky
Соколов
Dmitriy Podnozov
Фёдор Николаевич
Roman Evdokimov
Роман Синицин
Yuliya Rutberg
Тимофей
Dmitriy Astrakhan
Коган
Kseniya Lavrova-Glinka
Лиля
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Arbat setting evokes the Soviet intelligentsia's 'thaw' era — where private life briefly flourished before Brezhnev froze it again.
Director Zinoviy Royzman specializes in adaptations of Soviet women's literature — this continues his obsession with female protagonists navigating impossible moral labyrinths.
RU
