Vladimir Smirnov

A young literature teacher joins an evening technical school where her students - miners, metallurgists, builders and drivers - clash with her literary ideals. To understand them, she visits their families, workplaces and reads their essays on “The Best Person I Know,” learning their hidden struggles and reexamining her own moral judgments.

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Young Venka investigates the cause of death of a fellow villager during the Great Patriotic War - in the process uncovering a traitor who has been murdering witnesses to his own inglorious past.

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Boev, an enthusiastic form master, is trying hard to establish rapport with his final-year students. His frankness, buoyancy and good nature soon make him a universal favorite. The only one who does not approve of him is headmaster who loves his job, but is not aware of how dated his own views are and cannot understand the young teacher. Apart from this, Boev comes in into particularly sharp conflict with his colleague and childhood chum Kiril who is consumed by jealousy and the ambition to get promoted quickly.

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1918. Workers from Petrograd come to Altai region to establish the first agricultural commune. In spite of the hostility of the local White Army cossacks the workers build houses, cultivate land. The poor peasants are turning towards the commune. However, White Army cossacks take vengeance on the members of the commune.

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A television play based on stories by Alexander Grin. Five sailing ships are blocked in the port of Lissa by an enemy privateer. The captains of four of these ships gather around a hotel table, pondering how to set sail and outsmart the privateer's vigilance...

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Set in a fictional town in northern Russia, where highly classified research in magic occurs, the novel is a satire of Soviet scientific research institutes, complete with an inept administration, a dishonest, show-horse professor, and numerous equipment failures. It offers an idealistic view of the scientific work ethic, as reflected in the title which suggests that the scientists' weekends are nonexistent. (Wikipedia)

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