unknown Soviet gem

I've seen the cover art of this movie around for years in my fanatical search for obscure foreign cinema. I would have watched this years ago but every source that offered it did not have English subtitles. Finally got a download of it off worldscinema.org with ESTs and discovered an unknown Soviet gem. For me this film has it all; action, romance, large causes, good, evil, and historical insight.

There is so much ethnic pathos that at times I felt like I was watching a documentary. Though I am diametrically opposed to the teacher at hand I still didn't feel like I was having Leninist propaganda shoved down my throat like most Soviet films of an earlier era. This was such an exclusive movie on all levels...scenery-dialogue-historical setting.

what ails most madmen is realitys grasp or escape, a paralysis of analysis