Valentina Fedotova

Two Russian soldiers, one battle-seasoned and the other barely into his boots and uniform, are taken prisoner by an anxious Islamic father from a remote village hoping to trade them for his captured son.

The villagers dreamed of the happy days to come, but the war came and the men went to defend their land.

Pre-Petrine Russia, Semyon Lazarev, one of the instigators of the “Copper Riot”, is forced to flee, as a result of which he ends up in the army of the leader of the peasant uprising Stepan Razin.