At the end Kotov was executed (shot) by the order of Stalin, they say that in the epilogue, if I remember correctly. The film is set exactly in the period of the great purges when tens of thousands of officers were executed, Stalin was mistrustful of them. The purges led to catastrophic conditions in the army and several disastrous defeats at the beginning of World War II.
And as far as I remember, Kotov's wife and daughter were sent to a camp and when they were rehabilitated, they moved to Kazakhstan where they lived until their death (the daughter died in early 90s).
I really don't know how Mikhalkov is going to pull this off. He is my favourite Russian director, but we have to admit that twelve years have passed since his released "Utomlyonnye solntsem" and neither he nor Menshikov became any younger during that period.
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