''The Seventh Companion'' () is a 1967

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

set in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in the years following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. The film marked the directorial debut of Russian director Aleksei German, who co-directed it with

Grigori Aronov Grigori (Geliy) Lazarevich Aronov (Григо́рий (Ге́лий) Ла́заревич Аро́нов, born 1 January 1923 in Pochep; died 1 July 1984 in Pochep) was a Soviet Union, Soviet film director, actor, and screenwriter. He co-directed ' ...

. The film is based on a novel by

Boris Lavrenyov Boris Andreyevich Lavrenyov () (real name Sergeyev), (16 July Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 July1891 – 7 January 1959) was a Soviet Union">Soviet Russian writer and playwright. Lavr ...

Plot

The film is set in 1918, St. Petersburg, Russia. The new government has announced a

Red Terror The Red Terror () was a campaign of political repression and Mass killing, executions in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police ...

, and now a merciless extermination of "counter-revolutionaries" is underway. Eugene Pavlovich Adamov, general of the royal army and professor at the Military Academy of Law, is arrested and placed in a kind of "room" which is arranged as a prisoner's cell. However, it does not only contain the king's soldiers, officials and aristocrats, but also ordinary criminals. Every day prisoners who are shaking from fear are being taken away for "trial" from the horrible room. And the verdict is almost always the same – execution by the firing squad. Adamov has no illusions as he quietly waits for death, but suddenly a miracle happens: he is freed. Being an honest and principled man, Adamov in 1905 refused to bring charges against two sailors, who had disobeyed their captain's criminal orders. Now the new government considered this sufficient grounds for release of the old tsarist general. However, Adamov has no place to go: his apartment with numerous rooms has been given to other people a long time ago, and the general has to go back to the place of his recent confinement where he finds a job as a launderer. Some time later Adamov is offered a job as an investigator and he begins to serve the new government. However, as he investigates the murders of the military confiscation unit ("prodotryad") members, the general is faced with an attempt of lawlessness on the part of the "reds" and resolutely tries to prevent this. Alas, no one listens to Adamov, innocent people are shot without trial, and the general himself falls into the hands of the "whites". Adamov tries to explain to the officer of the detachment his reasons for him going over to the Bolshevik side, but he sees only a traitor in Adamov, and he orders the old law professor to be shot.

Cast

* Andrei Popov – Eugene Pavlovich Adamov, former royal general * Aleksandr Anisimov – Kuhtin * Georgiy Shtil – Kimka * Pyotr Chernov – Zykov * Valentin Abramov – chairman of the house committee * Vladimir Osenev – Priklonskiy * Sofia Giatsintova – Marya Semyonovna, general's wife * Vladimir Erenberg – Verbovskiy * Aleksandr Mikhaylov – Muravlev * Abesalom Loria – Babsky, inventor * Grigory Shpigel – Shpigel * Pyotr Kudlay – Kostel-Sviridov * Georgi Yumatov – Turka * Anatoli Romashin – white officer *

Aleksey Batalov Aleksey Vladimirovich Batalov (20 November 192815 June 2017) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, film director, screenwriter, and pedagogue acclaimed for his portrayal of noble and positive characters. He was named a People's Artist ...

– commissar * Aleksey Glazyrin – chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal * Liliya Gritsenko – Sonia Priklonskaya * Panteleymon Krymov – Dmitriy Andreevich * Yuri Leonidov – colonel

References

External links

* Films directed by Aleksei Yuryevich German 1960s Russian-language films Films set in Russia Films based on Russian novels Russian Civil War films 1967 directorial debut films 1967 films Soviet black-and-white films {{USSR-film-stub