The White Guard (TV series)

''The White Guard'' (russian: Белая гвардия, Belaya Gvardiya) is a Russian television series, based on the novel by Bulgakov, ''The White Guard''.

Plot

The film tells about the arduous years of the civil war in Russia, portraying the fate of the Turbin family who fell into a cycle of sad events of the 1918-1919 winter in Kiev. The basis for the film's plot is the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov: ''The White Guard''. The historical background of the film is the fall of the Ukrainian power of Hetman Skoropadsky, the capture of Kiev by UNR troops and their subsequent flight under the blows of the Red Army.

The protagonist Alexei Turbin is a military physician who has seen and experienced a lot during the three years of the world war. He is one of those tens of thousands of Russian officers who after the revolution found themselves in a situation of complete uncertainty in political and private life. Many of them went to the service of Hetman Skoropadsky and his moderate regime under the German protectorate, considering it a lesser evil than the red terror already noted in Kiev against officers and intelligentsia by the Bolsheviks. However, the German Empire was defeated on the fronts of the First World War, the Hetman fled with the Germans, and a few Russian officers and junker (cadets) remained the only force able to stand in the way of the followers of Symon Petliura coming to Kiev.

Cast

*Konstantin Khabensky as Alexei Vasilievich Turbin, a military doctor.
*Mikhail Porechenkov as Victor Myshlaevsky, Lieutenant of Artillery
*Yevgeny Dyatlov as Leonid Shervinsky
*Andrei Zibrov as Alexander Bronislavovich Studzinsky
*Yanina Studilina as Anna
*Sergei Brune as Lariosik
*Nikolay Yefremov as Nikolay Turbin
*Kseniya Rappoport as Elena Thalberg
*Sergei Garmash as Kozyr-Leshko, Colonel of Petlyura forces
*Yuri Itskov as Vasilisa (Lisovich), a neighbor of Turbin family
*Fyodor Bondarchuk as Shpolyansky, Ensign Futurist
* Alexei Serebryakov as Felix Nay-Tours, colonel of the Hussars
*Mariya Lugovaya as Irina Nay-Tours
*Yevgeny Stychkin as Second Lieutenant of Artillery Stepanov (Karas)
*Sergei Shakurov as Hetman Skoropadsky
*Sergei Barkovsky as father Alexander, priest
*Kirill Zhandarov as Strashkevich, Ensign
*Artur Smolyaninov as Adjutant Boyko
*Ekaterina Vilkova as Julia Reiss
*Yevgeny Yefremov as Wolf
*Vladimir Vdovichenkov as Pleshko, Captain
*Yuri Stoyanov as Blokhin, Maj.-Gen.
*Yevgenia Dobrovolskaya as Vanda
* Aleksei Guskov as Malyshev, colonel, commander of mortar squadron
* Ivan I. Krasko as Maxim
*Arthur Vakha az Zamansky
* Igor Vernik as Shchur
*Sergey Trifonov as Bourgeois
*Igor Chernevich as Sergey Thalberg
*Dennis Reyshahrit as cashier in the cinema theater

The Crew

*Written by: Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko, Sergey Snezhkin
*Directed by: Sergei Snezhkin
*Screenplay by Sergei Machilskiy

The film was shot in St. Petersburg and Vyborg (Leningrad Oblast) by help of Lenfilm studios.

Reception

The series has received unanimously negative comments from all sides, the alterations of Bulgakov's novel and the acting skills of the actors being particularly criticised.

The Ukrainian Culture Ministry decides not to issue distribution licenses for it as they "show contempt for the Ukrainian language, people and the state," and "some facts are distorted to benefit Russia." Moscow Times
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See also

* ''The Days of the Turbins'' - a 1976 Soviet film

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Guard
Russia-1 original programming
2010s Russian television series
2012 Russian television series debuts
2012 Russian television series endings
Russian drama television series
Films based on works by Mikhail Bulgakov
Television shows based on Russian novels