November 4, 2022 5:00 am
The public did not expect this from the filmmakers of the USSR.
The “Seventeen Moments of Spring” spy series has become a phenomenon in the USSR. Millions of people put off all their business to see Stirlitz’s next series of adventures. In the wake of success, it was even decided to show the image to the inhabitants of the GDR, but they did not perceive the series so unambiguously.
The fact is that the creators wanted to show the inhabitants of Germany without stereotypes. Therefore, in a multi-part image, one can meet very positive and endearing characters, including, for example, a naive priest or a constantly thoughtful Wehrmacht general.
This attitude confused the inhabitants of the GDR. They were delighted to see that their compatriots were presented not only as villains who tried to conquer the world. Many even admitted that they did not expect such an attitude from the Soviet series at all and did not believe that such a tape could be created in the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the public could not and did not want to empathize with Stirlitz. He was an alien hero to them and they didn’t have any warm feelings for him as residents of the USSR, so they didn’t understand why the series was garnering so many laudatory reviews.
