Seventeen Moments of Spring

Seventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet twelve-part television series, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the novel of the same title by Yulian Semyonov. The series portrays the exploits of Maxim Isaev, a Soviet spy operating in Nazi Germany under the name Max Otto von Stierlitz, portrayed by Vyacheslav Tikhonov. Stierlitz is planted in 1927, well before the Nazi takeover of pre-war Germany. He then enlists in the NSDAP and rises through the ranks, becoming an important Nazi counterintelligence officer. He recruits several agents from among dissident German intellectuals and persecuted clergy. Stierlitz discovers, and later schemes to disrupt, the secret negotiations between Karl Wolff and Allen Dulles taking place in Switzerland, aimed at forging a separate peace between Germany and the western Allies. Meanwhile, the Gestapo under Heinrich Müller searches for the unidentified Soviet resident spy and his ring. The series is considered the most successful Soviet spy thriller ever made and is one of the most popular television series in Soviet history. Two songs from the series, "Moments" and "The Song on the Far-away Homeland", was subject to critical acclaim. Plot February 1945, Germany. Max Otto von Stierlitz, a respected SS-Standartenführer in the Ausland-SD, is in fact Soviet spy Maxim Isaev, who has infiltrated the German establishment many years ago. Though Adolf Hitler is determined to continue the Second World War, Walter Schellenberg convinces Heinrich Himmler to conduct secret negotiations with the Americans, hoping to reach a separate peace deal which would allow the Germans to concentrate all their forces on the Eastern Front. In the meantime, Ernst Kaltenbrunner becomes suspicious of Stierlitz, and orders Heinrich Müller to launch a covert investigation on him.