'' The Chekist '' was adapted by Jacques Baynac from Vladimir Zazubrin 's short story " '' Щепка '' " ( known variably in English as " Sliver " , " The Splinter " , or " The Chip " ) , which was written in 1923 but has remained unpublished until the Glasnost era in 1989 when it was printed in the journal '' Sibirskie Ogni '' . Zazubrin , a former Bolshevik infiltrator of the Okhrana and veteran of both sides of the Civil War , himself fell victim to the Great Purge and was himself arrested and executed in 1937 , along with Valerian Pravdukhin who wrote the preface for the original intended publication . The film was produced by Oleg Konkov and Guy Seligman for the French TV ARTE . It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival
1992 Cannes Film Festival
1992 Cannes Film Festival
The Chekist