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A young World War II hero's moral and political resolve is tested when he and his father are drummed out of the Communist Party in this political drama. Sergei (Vitali Konyaev) resents his father for taking a lover, but his morals do not stop his own affair with a woman separated from her husband. After the war, Sergei enters the institute hoping to further his education, but he too is kicked out of the Party and the institute for the sins of his father. Vladimir Basov, a famous character actor in his own right, directed the film that was seen by over 50 million people in the USSR alone. This is one of the last films that fell under the political thaw period under Khruschev and openly depicted Stalinist oppression. The feature received the Grand Prize at the All-Union Film Festival in 1964.