For filmmaker Dmitry Barshevsky, a clear sign that Russia may be on the road to democracy is the fact that television channels are competing for the right to air his Moscow Saga," a 24-part serial on the Stalinist era, in prime time.
The serial, currently in post-production, is a vast, sprawling panorama portraying three decades of Soviet history which, in the director's view, delineates the evils of Joseph Stalin's blood-stained rule with a frankness that has never been seen on screen before.
Based on Vasily Aksyonov's novel of the same name, Moscow Saga deals unflinchingly not only with the horrors that Stalin and his regime visited on the peoples of the Soviet Union but also on the responsibility of the people themselves, Barshevsky said.
"It's awful to say, but the people were both victims and prosecutors. We've tried to see through their eyes and understand their hearts. Some people were happy to be on the prosecutors' side, some became unhappy only later. But it's a complicated story, there was no black and white, just shades of grey," he said.
The series is constructed around a family, that of Boris Gradov, an eminent doctor who early on becomes compromised, allowing himself to be used in the death -- and suspected murder -- in 1925, during an emergency operation, of one of Stalin's potential rivals, Mikhail Frunze.
As it unfolds, the fictional saga traces the destinies of Gradov's wife, his children, their families and friends, in particular that of his son Nikita, caught up in Stalin's purge of the military and later taken from a forced labor camp to lead Red Army troops in the defense of Moscow against invading German forces.
The project is itself something of a family saga. It is scripted by Barshevsky's wife Natalya Violina and produced by his son Anton Barshevsky, and Aksyonov's son Alex worked on the film as art director.
Barshevsky has taken considerable liberties with Aksyonov's novel, introducing new characters and plot elements often based on the experiences and memories of close family members.
Aksyonov has approved the changes, all the more willingly in that a family connection provided the sources for much of the new material.
"My wife's aunt was a prisoner at the camp in Magadan in Stalin's time and shared quarters with Aksyonov's mother. Both survived, and they became close friends, returning to Moscow and living in the same house till the end of their lives in the 1980s," Barshevsky said.
There is a distinct sense of personal mission surrounding the making of the series.
"I think all of us feel that we have an overriding objective: reconciling the present generation with the history of the country in which their parents and grandparents lived."
For Barshevsky, "it's harmful for the country to live disconnected from its history. Our task is to explain how things were, how people managed to live, to love, to have children. If we do not, there will be a break in the chain between generations."
Despite the darkness of the events that it portrays, Barshevsky stresses that his story is not one of unredeemed doom and gloom.
"The times were horrible, it's true, but there was much that was uplifting too. There were examples of moral strength, of courage, of friendship, loyalty, passion and talent that I'm not sure you could find in today's Russia. The cruelty of the times did not create only monsters, it also inspired sublime moral qualities."
Barshevsky takes the story up to 1956, the year of Khrushchev's secret speech to the 20th Communist party congress that first lifted a corner of the veil over Stalin's crimes.
Half a century on, Barshevsky feels Russia still has a long way to go in facing up to its Stalinist past.
"It's very important that the government show its position against Stalin's terror. People are voicing alarm about the fate of democracy in our country. But we've been able to make this film, and all the channels are asking if they can show it in prime time.
"For me, this gives grounds for hoping that we are on the path to democracy."
The project, he noted, had received state funding, and officials "including some in government" who have seen rough cuts have expressed satisfaction.
Crunch time will come in May, the deadline Barshevsky has set himself for Moscow Saga to start broadcasting.
In the meantime he is also working on a feature-length version of the saga for theater release.
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