Hope I'm not doing a spoiler, but what was it that caused them to come after him (not that Stalin needed a reason other than his paranoia). In rewatching the beginning, I wondered if his coming out and stopping the whole tank deal, whatever they were doing, to save the wheat might have gotten him ultimately in trouble -- any thoughts?
shareHe turned the tanks back from their excersizes the very morning of the day the NKVD came to apprehend him. The wheels were already in motion, as the saying goes . The NKVD were probably already enroute as that happened, and certainly Mitya was just minutes from arriving at colonel Kotov's home.
shareI'm not up on my soviet history but I think this was part of the great purge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
It is another layer to a great movie.
she leads me through moonlight only to burn me with the sun...