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I was encouraged to watch this piece because I really liked Daniil Strakhov's role in the series "Znachar/healer". However; unfortunately I was familiar with the older adaptation of Semyonov's novel "Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat". That I found this newer version extremely disappointing. Thirty four years of technology couldn't help this poor adaptation, which essentially hollowed the novel from its main theme "diamonds for bread" .. and while the older version ended with the freight train carrying precious wheat back home, consoling Isaev for all the personal and general hardships of the time, this version almost ignored this very same purpose of the whole intelligence operation.

It also intentionally hollowed the script from the two-sided debate presented in the earlier version ..words vs. Force..aim vs. Means..family vs. Duty..talent vs. Equality. I don't claim the older one discussed those topics in depth (it was a spy genre after all), but dialogues were in a way convincing enough from the perspective of non-elite, ordinary people of the civil war era. This version instead presented a monologue with one-sided, shallow arguments, where even the main role character (who is supposedly smart and cultured) had no answer for his actions that one gets the sense he's about to defect to Germany.

Even if one tries to focus on the suspense/action part of the series, the plot still appears loose with incoherent events, some characters totally removed and links poorly comprehensible.

The second "far east" story/season-2 is much better with an improved plot and a greater space for the "Isaev" character to be shown, together with several other robust characters on both fronts.