The lost film about the peasant rebellion of the 18th century in Ukraine, led by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Honta. The history of the haydamak movement became a trigger for authors to have experiments in the field of film language: shooting against the background of black velvet, focus on the static character of the picture, the sculptural nature of composition mise-en-scène solutions, replacement of dramatic collisions with cinema engravings depicting the historical past.

A young man, Ivan, is forcefully mobilised and sent to fight in the Caucasian War as a soldier of the Russian Empire by his landlord, leaving his wife behind. In the Caucasus, Ivas experiences the fierce local resistance to the Russian military, and returns home to launch an uprising against the Russian government.

An episode of the liberation movement in Ukraine - the uprising of Kolievs (serfs, artisans and fishermen) against the tyranny of the feudal lords and the Polish nobility, which ended with a brutal massacre performed by a Russian punitive expedition in 1768.

Based on the Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi’s novel. At the distillery farmers begin to strike. Local rich men without punitive detachment begin reprisals from rebels. Punitive detachment of dragoons, who called from the city, only completes the massacre.

This is a Russian silent feature film by Vladimir Krivtsov, which marked the beginning of the "Russian Golden Series". The film is lost.