arresting Spiridon Solomin, who soon escapes and kills Kolya. Aleksei flees. In June 1941, Aleksei, a teenager, returns to Yelan and meets Taya, at that point still a naïve girl; she becomes infatuated with him. A recruiting barge visits the town, announcing the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, and Aleksei enlists. The boat pulls away and Taya yells to Aleksei that she will wait for him all her life. In the war, Aleksei saves an injured officer (Philip, whom he does not know, or at least recognize) and becomes a decorated war hero. The war ends, and Taya continues to wait for Aleksei's return day after day, which never occurs. Around 1964, Aleksei returns to Yelan with an oil drilling crew. His uncle, Spiridon, has returned from prison a bitter and frail man, and Aleksei feels only pity. He meets Taya and has a casual affair, but she is also courted by Aleksei's boss Tofik, causing a rift. Meanwhile, Philip, who is in Moscow, has risen high into the ranks of Soviet leadership, but wrestles with his conscience over the plan for a massive hydroelectric dam project that would flood Yelan. Aleksei resigns from the oil drilling operation to leave town, stopping at Taya's house to take her with him to the resort city of Sochi, but it becomes clear that they have grown apart; she refuses to say whether the child she expects is Aleksei's or Tofik's. Aleksei storms off, and the oil well blows out as he leaves town. The blowout turns into an inferno and Aleksei rushes in to save a former coworker, and dies in the process. Spiridon gloats over the demise of the last Ustyuzhanin, but Taya reveals to him that she bears Aleksei's child. At a party conference in Moscow, a telegram arrives with the news of the oil strike, which vindicates Siberia as a mining center. The officials react with pleasure but give a moment of silence for the passing of Aleksei. Philip flies to Yelan to supervise the containment operation, but it becomes clear that the graveyard must be razed to save the town. As the film closes, the ghosts of the Solomins and Ustyuzhanins seemingly appear in the graveyard expressing gratitude and unity. Cast Vladimir Samoilov as Afanasy Ustyuzhanin Natalya Andrejchenko as Nastya Solomina Vitaly Solomin as Nikolai Ustyuzhanin Nikita Mikhalkov as Aleksei Ustyuzhanin Lyudmila Gurchenko as Taya Solomina Sergey