Aleksandr Gladkov

Young musicologist Marina Gabrielyan arrives in Leningrad with the aim of finding and restoring the first symphony by renowned composer Sergei Kornilov. Despite the composer's active resistance, she manages to find individual parts of the symphony and, with the help of young composer Gurov, restore the music.

The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War. The fates of two friends, Lyusia and Lyuka, unfold in different ways. Lyusia is a person of strong character and constancy in her affections. Lyuka, relying solely on her beauty, sought by any means to achieve her chosen goal — to become an actress. The friends meet again after the war. Lyusia finds her true happiness, while Lyuka never manages to find her place in life.

A young girl decides to join a Hussar squadron and fight against Napoleon. Dressed as a man, she proves herself an excellent, even heroic soldier, but complications ensue when her real identity is revealed.

About the beginning of M. Gorky's literary activity. Arriving in the provincial town of Samara, Alexey Peshkov publishes one after another incriminating feuilletons under the pseudonym Yehudiel Chlamydia. Acquires enemies, friends, becomes a famous writer and leaves for Moscow.

Inspired by the life of Varvara Asenkova, a 19th-century actress who earned great acclaim on St. Petersburg stage before her death at the age of 24.