The film has been shelved.
The television series “Eternal Call” might never reach the audience. A serious threat hung over the project following the work on it was completed. The fault was the discontent of the censors.
Their attention was attracted by the official Pyotr Polipov, played by Yuri Smirnov. The actor so brilliantly embodied the negative character that the censors suspected the creators of the project of wanting to veil the anti-Soviet. As a result, only the first six episodes were shown in 1976, while the rest were shelved.
The series was fully presented to the audience only in 1983, but it was not without consequences. So, Smirnov was the only leading actor who was never awarded the State Prize. Apparently, officials considered it unacceptable to reward an artist who played a villain. In any case, this did not affect the career of a celebrity – later he received many more roles and still enters the theater stage.
