Natalya Parashkina

Nikolay Fomich Ferapontov is a muralist and "classic of socialist realism", who lived a life far from sinless. However, all success has remained in the distant past, and in his old age he has to make ends meet, interrupting by random orders. Everything changes when a young art critic Myasoedov appears on his doorstep and finds paintings in the back room, in which he unexpectedly recognizes masterpieces of fine art. Not really imagining the real origin of the paintings, Nikolay Fomich calls himself their author, and from that moment the hunt for money and fame begins.

Moscow, 1952, mid-October, the XIX Congress of the CPSU had just ended. A communal apartment on Bolshaya Pirogovka. In one of the rooms lives the Petkevich family: Ariadna with her husband Boris and her parents, professor of philosophy Peter Kazimirovich and his wife Angelina Fyodorovna. For those few months that remained until Stalin's death, the family experiences a series of dramatic events. But on a background of terrible time, antisemitism, fabricated "case of doctors", denunciations and snitches, there are people who live their lives without losing dignity.

Moscow, summer of 1953. Tanya, an eleven-year old girl, meets a boy, Mitya. Mitya and his family have just returned from exile in the Russian Far East. Tanya learns that Mitya had to leave behind his best friend, a dog called Hector. Mitya is eager for Hector to join him in Moscow, but the adults declare it impossible - a large city is no place for a dog. In an attempt to prove the adults wrong and convince them to bring over Hector, Mitya and Tanya decide to create the perfect home for him - a dog's paradise in an empty sealed room they find in the building...

A young German, Werner Müller, turns out to be a volunteer in the neurological department of an ordinary St. Petersburg hospital. A foreigner, overwhelmed by the impulse to help all the sick and needy, has a long and eventful day ahead of him. Every now and then, finding himself in comical situations and making his way through misunderstandings, the volunteer discovers all the facets of the Russian national character.

Somewhere in the Urals, between the European and the Asian parts of Russia, there is a stele called "Europe-Asia". Professional swindlers have taken a liking to this place. For several days in a row a wedding is taking place by the roadside. They hide under the veil of the bride, in the costumes of the groom and witnesses, cynically taking in turn every traveler. Fraudsters "spin" the travelers for cash gifts to the newlyweds, generously feeding the guests with diluted alcohol. Under the guidance of the "mother of the bride" the group plays out incredibly funny criminal plays, and their spectators, accomplices and victims are PR people and political technologists, Chinese and Hungarians, policemen and bandits, beggar nomad children and, of course, foreign tourists nostalgic for the once abandoned Russia....

The face and habits of this very original character are well known - the unique and irresistible Ensign Zadov is one of the main characters of the comedy series "Beware, Modern!2».

One morning, the residents of a nine-story building discover that their elevator is missing. Nadezhda Nosova, a housewife and mother of two sons, is taking over the investigation. The younger Artyom is forced to help her, but the deeper they dive into the case, the more they learn about neighborhood secrets, encounter intrigues and mysteries that unexpectedly lead to the main suspect, Nadia's eldest son Denis. Now solving a crime becomes a matter of honor.