Nikolai Larin

The plot is the embodiment of everyday belief about the impact of a certain evil force on a person. The action develops in a peasant environment.

The heroine loves her father's young steward. The appearance of her father, attempting to match her with a rich old man, makes her hide her lover under the featherbed, where he suffocates; An unwitting, almost anecdotal murder-- understandable familial insubordination turned deadly. Having found the corpse, mother and daughter in fear call the janitor, who hides the body in a barrel and throws it into the Volga river. The 'kindly' janitor, however, begins to blackmail the troubled women.

A young engineer falls in love with the Russian countess Tatiana. Their relationship describes the turbulent times of Russia, when it entered the war and later the Revolution. In addition, the monk Rasputin has an important place in the story.

Biography of a village boy who got into the city. Having settled down as a sex worker in a tavern, the hero falls in love with a dressmaker - and leaves her as soon as she becomes a mother. Then he meets with the owner of the tavern, robs her and after a series of revels goes to prison. Meanwhile, a woman abandoned by him decides to commit suicide. She is saved from death by a switchman, who soon marries her. Here, after a few years, the hero who returned from hard labor ends up and, for the sake of the happiness of his own daughter, decides to leave the owners of this quiet monastery alone.

The shepherd Goran and Sevdana are in love. Her father, Old Stanko, gets wind of this and decides to punish the shepherd. Kancho is also in love with Sevdana and looks for opportunity to get rid of Goran. Old Stanko is hurt in a quarrel for land with peasants from the neighboring village. Goran helps him. Kanco takes advantage of the general confusion and shoots at the shepherd. While the two men lie wounded on the ground Kancho surprises Sevdana, who is worried about her father, and drags her towards the vineyards. Aunt Strahila rushes to her help. Sevdana looks after Goran. Old Stanko curses his daughter believing that she is being disgraced. The peasants attribute the present drought to the sins of the young and their defiance of established customs and traditions. Everyone shuns Sevdana and she loses her mind. Kancho does not evade retribution and dies. Goran leaves the village.

This large historical production was staged simultaneously with A. Khanzhonkov's painting "The Accession of the House of Romanov", but it was carried out on a larger scale; It ends with documentary footage of the coronation of Nicholas II.