January 1917. The workers and peasants of Russia, hunted by the tsarist government in the trenches, forced to defend alien interests of the king, the landowners and exploiters-capitalists. Bolshevik worker Yakov Orel, selflessly performing party mission, said the soldiers the truth about war, about revolution, about what the overthrow of the autocracy does not mean the liberation of the workers from the yoke of landlords and capitalists exploitation. For example, one regiment of the film reflects the events that took place in the whole of the Russian army between February and October 1917.

The film covers the events of 1896-1905 - from the first revolutionary gatherings to the armed Moscow uprising of workers at Krasnaya Presnya, later called Bloody Sunday. St. Petersburg students Alexander Mikhailov and Yevgeny Svetlov and a peasant girl Varvara Postnikova arrive in Moscow and follow the complicated path of underground revolutionaries.

Russian filmmaker Vera Stroyeva specialized in cinematic adaptations of famous operas. One of the most successful of these was her 1955 film version of Mussorgsky and Pushkin's Boris Godunov. Stroyeva's adaptation deftly streamlines the story of a Russian czar whose life is placed in jeopardy by a pretender to his throne. A. Pirogov sings the title role, while G. Nellep provides vocal and visual menace as the "False Dmitri". The use of a color process known as Magicolor adds just the right touch of theatrical artificiality to the pomp-and-splendor proceedings.