Nadezhda Zharikova

Fedot the Shooter is sent by the Czar to find some special food for the foreign ambassador's visit. During the hunt Fedot meets his love Marusya - the magical bird-woman. Evil Czar and his no-less-evil sidekick General with the help of the local witch Yaga try to eliminate Fedot by giving him more and more complex quests and to take Marusya to Tsar's palace. Marusya helps Fedot to solve the quests successfully.

The protagonist finds out that some children were left behind in a sinking school, and is slowly driven mad as he tries to save them. A parable on the theme of the Last Judgment, numerous catastrophic events reveal a certain ambiguity in their origins, accompanied by the terrible suspicion that the things going on are some kind of a performance or theatrical production.

Young Sasha is brought into a state-run children's home because his mother died early and his father spends most of his life in prison. The conditions are like in a penal institution. Sasha tries several times to escape and to search for his father.

The action is set in 1970 as the Soviet Union (and the entire progressive world) are preparing to celebrate Lenin's centenary. Not to be outdone, the camp commander decides to have the prisoners put on a play about Lenin's life. However, the ensuing preparations turn everything upside down and seem to offer a God-given chance to plot an escape.