To be a top-grade intelligence officer you’ll need to brush up on your language skills. SPYSCAPE has rounded up 17 must-watch Russian espionage thrillers to keep you on top of your brief.
RUSSIAN SPY SERIES
The Optimists (2017)
Set in the Cold War, The Optimists combines a Mad Men aesthetic with deadly consequences. The series begins with the 1959 American National Exhibition in Sokolniki and follows a group of young diplomats working for the Strategic Analysis Group, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ think tank established during the Khrushchev era. (Prime Video)
Spies (2013)
Set in 1941, Arina and Zoya are hired by Russia's NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) to be secret agents behind enemy lines in Poland, Germany, Riga, and Crimea. They fight adversaries and their own fears. (YouTube, Google Play, Prime Video)
To The Lake (2020)
A contagious illness ravages Moscow, triggering panic and looting in To The Lake. Families and neighbors form shaky alliances for survival, but who is an ally and who is an enemy? There are no safe havens and nothing can be taken for granted in this exceptional drama. (Netflix)
Hope (2020)
Nadezhda - which meansHope in Russian - is an assassin for the Syndicate, a shady group she agreed to work for in exchange for her release from prison. The espionage action series is set between 1990s Russia and the present day. Hope stars Victoria Isakova, who previously anchored the Russian adaptation of Homeland and the drama series To The Lake. (Russian Video service START)
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To be a top-grade intelligence officer you’ll need to brush up on your language skills. SPYSCAPE has rounded up 17 must-watch Russian espionage thrillers to keep you on top of your brief.
RUSSIAN SPY SERIES
The Optimists (2017)
Set in the Cold War, The Optimists combines a Mad Men aesthetic with deadly consequences. The series begins with the 1959 American National Exhibition in Sokolniki and follows a group of young diplomats working for the Strategic Analysis Group, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ think tank established during the Khrushchev era. (Prime Video)
Spies (2013)
Set in 1941, Arina and Zoya are hired by Russia's NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) to be secret agents behind enemy lines in Poland, Germany, Riga, and Crimea. They fight adversaries and their own fears. (YouTube, Google Play, Prime Video)
To The Lake (2020)
A contagious illness ravages Moscow, triggering panic and looting in To The Lake. Families and neighbors form shaky alliances for survival, but who is an ally and who is an enemy? There are no safe havens and nothing can be taken for granted in this exceptional drama. (Netflix)
Hope (2020)
Nadezhda - which meansHope in Russian - is an assassin for the Syndicate, a shady group she agreed to work for in exchange for her release from prison. The espionage action series is set between 1990s Russia and the present day. Hope stars Victoria Isakova, who previously anchored the Russian adaptation of Homeland and the drama series To The Lake. (Russian Video service START)
Regina Zbarskaya is a Soviet fashion model during the Cold War in this exceptional period piece. But is she the Red Queen of the catwalk or a KGB agent seducing foreign diplomats? This is an unmissable series about secrets and spies. (YouTube, Prime Video)
Ekaterina: The Rise of Catherine the Great (2014-2017)
Palace intrigue, coup d’etats, and backstabbing royals - what’s not to like? Catherine The Great has been the basis of at least three Russian mini-series. Ekaterina (Prime Video) is the story of her rise to Empress of Russia following the assassination of her husband. The 2015 miniseriesCatherine the Great (Prime Video) covers 20 years of palace intrigue, while the 2019 British-American miniseries(Sky Vision, HBO) follows Catherine from 1764 until her death.
Variant ‘Omega’ (1975)
Set during WWII, Variant ‘Omega’ is a psychological five-part series that follows Soviet secret service agent Sergey Skorin within the German Nazi ranks in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1942-1945. Skorin must confront SS officers with great skill as he plays a dangerous game of life and death. (Prime Video)
Seventeen Moments of Spring follows Maxim Isaev, a Soviet spy who becomes a Nazi counterintelligence officer. He recruits dissident German intellectuals while aiming to disrupt secret negotiations between CIA director Allen Dulles and Hitler’s SS liaison officer Karl Wolff. The series is considered by many to be the most successful Soviet spy thriller ever made. (YouTube)
Snow and Ashes (2015)
There is a saboteur among the Russians and it's up to KGB Major Urusov and his three cadets to eliminate the problem. Snow and Ashes is set in the Soviet Union in 1942. (Prime Video)
The Sniffer (2013)
A detective with an incredible sense of smell solves mysteries with the assistance of a childhood friend, who happens to be an officer in the Special Bureau of Investigations. Sumptuously shot, the cinematography for The Sniffer is by Graham Frake, previously chief of photography for Downton Abbey. (Prime Video)
The Shield and the Sword is based on a novel by Vadim Kozhevnikov about a spy who infiltrates the German SS during World War II. The four-part movie was highly influential in the Soviet Union, even inspiring Vladimir Putin to join the KGB. "Even before I graduated from school, I wanted to work in intelligence," Putin said in his autobiography, First Person. "Books and spy movies like The Sword and the Shield took hold of my imagination." (Netflix in some countries, Prime Video)
Spy (2012)
Spy was made with one of the largest budgets in Russian film history. The thriller is set in 1941 before the German invasion of Russia. NKVD officers Dorin and Oktyabrsky are hunting a German Abwehr spy in Moscow hoping to reveal Hitler's plans for an invasion. (Google Play, YouTube, Prime Video)
Dear Comrades! (2020)
Dear Comrades! is about a 1962 massacre during a demonstration of workers protesting rising food prices and wage cuts. Lyudmila’s 18-year-old daughter disappears during the protest and Lyudmila must search for her discreetly as the KGB begins secretly burying bodies and covering up the massacre. The film was nominated for a British BAFTA award and short-listed for the Oscars. (Google Play, YouTube, Apple TV, Curzon, Prime Video)
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
This Oscar-winning movie is set in the Soviet Union in 1936. Army commander Sergei Petrovich Kotov and his wife, Marusia, are enjoying a family holiday when Marusia's long-lost love - a man who’s been missing for 13 years - reappears at the family's dacha with a secret agenda. (Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, Vudu)
Dead Season (1968)
A Soviet spy discovers a former German war criminal who is developing a deadly chemical gas tested on WWII POWs. Janosh Neumann, an ex-Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) counterintelligence officer, ranks Dead Season among his favorite Russian Cold War movies. (Prime Video)
The Secret Agent’s Blunder (1968)
In this psychological thriller, Tulyev arrived in the USSR to step up old agents and recruit new ones. Meanwhile, acting on an anonymous tip, the Russian counterintelligence service hunts for a resident using the pseudonym ‘Hope’. Part of a four-film set along with The Secret Agent’s Destiny (1970), The Secret Agent’s Return” (1982); and The End of Operation ‘Secret Agent’ (1986).(Watch The Secret Agent’s Blunder for free online or stream on Prime Video)
Stalingrad (2013)
Notable for its impressive production values, Stalingradis set in 1942, and revolves aroundRussian soldiers who take over a bombed-out building to fight the Germans for control of Stalingrad. They find a female survivor in the ruins and adopt her as their mascot. (Google Play, YouTube, Amazon Prime)
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