The series closely follows the plot of Rybakov's trilogy. Set in the
Soviet Union in the 1930s, it tells the story of Sasha Pankratov (Yevgeny Tsyganov), a student and loyal
Komsomol member from the
Arbat neighborhood of
Moscow who is unfairly exiled to
Siberia. As his family and friends, including his love interest Varya Ivanova (
Chulpan Khamatova), grapple with Sasha's sudden detention and departure, the series shows the growing fear and paranoia that gripped Moscow in the years before the murder of
Sergey Kirov and the start of Stalin's
Great Purge. ==References==