How it was 10/10/1999 (1999)

Diamond business, 1981.

In the late 1970s, among the "golden youth" (children of high-ranking Kremlin functionaries), it became incredibly prestigious to drive acquaintance with "thieves-in-law".

Since the main hobby of "children" was the speculation in jewelry, then such acquaintances allowed the sale of gold and diamonds through criminal channels.

Quite quickly, this business came into view of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The culmination of the investigation was the "Diamond Affair", in which Shchelokov, Andropov, and Galina Brezhneva, and the leadership of the "Soyuzhsotsirka", and "Mosyveliltorg" were embroiled.

The program is not so much the memories of a particular criminal case, but rather an investigation of the "slice of the era", an analysis of the mores of late stagnation against the backdrop of a fierce struggle for the "Kremlin throne."

The legend of criminal investigation Vladimir Chvanov tells about the investigation of the robbery of the apartment of the ballerina Sulamith Messerer.

Member of the artistic council of the Moscow Circus Nikulin on Tsvetnoy Boulevard Tatyana Nikulina, artists Lyudmila Moskaleva and Igor Kio recall the relationship With Galina Brezhneva and about the most diverse people from her entourage, through which subsequently a large "diamond" provocation was formed.

Also included are the comments of the trainer Irina Bugrimova about the robbery of her apartment.

Writer Edward Khrutsky recalls the most high-profile criminal cases of the 1970s and early 1980s, mentioning the investigation into the arrest and death of Gypsy artist Boris Buryatz, close to Galina Brezhneva, and the suicide of General Semyon Tsvigun.

The program uses footage from the chronicles of different years: awarding SK Tsvigun with a government award, Vasily Stalin in military exercises and parades, a fragment Igor Kio's speeches, the awarding of the title "People's Artist" to circus performers, fragments of meetings of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.