Utomlennye solntsem
In the summer of 1936 in the Soviet Union, Comdiv Sergei Petrovich Kotov, his wife Maroussia and their young daughter Nadia are relaxing in a banya when a peasant from the local collective farm frantically tells them the Soviet Army's tanks are about to crush the wheat harvest as part of general maneuvers. Kotov rides out to order the tank officer to halt. Kotov carries authority as a senior Old Bolshevik and legendary hero of the Russian Civil War, and is also very popular with the common people and local villagers.
The happy family returns to their country dacha, where they join Maroussia's relatives, a large and eccentric family of Chekhovian aristocrats. However, Mitya, an ex-nobleman and veteran of the anti-communist White Army then arrives. He was Maroussia's fiance before disappearing in 1923. Joyfully embraced by the family, he is introduced to Nadia as "Uncle Mitya". Maroussia is left feeling deeply conflicted, as she had suffered deeply when he left without explanation.
Despite his personable nature, Mitya appears to have returned with a secret agenda, as he works for the Soviet political police, or NKVD. He has arrived to arrest Kotov for a non-existent conspiracy. It is revenge, as Kotov had conscripted Mitya into the CHEKA, the predecessor of the NKVD. Mitya detests Kotov, whom he blames for causing him to lose Maroussia, his love for Russia, faith, and his profession as a pianist. Kotov remarks on Mitya's activities in Paris, where he fingered eight White Army generals to the NKVD. All were kidnapped, smuggled to the Soviet Union, and shot without trial.
Kotov believes his close relationship with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin will save him. However, a black car carrying NKVD agents arrives to remove Kotov, just as a group of Young Pioneer children arrives at the dacha to pay tribute to him. Kotov is forced to make a false confession to all charges and is shot in August 1936, while Mitya commits suicide. Maroussia is arrested and dies in the Gulag in 1940. Although arrested with her mother, Nadia lives to see all three sentences overturned during the Khrushchev thaw, and works as a teacher in Kazakhstan.
tragedy, revenge, romantic