Olga Ostroumova-Gutshmidt

Focuses on the lives of two married Polish couples (one Jewish, one Catholic) and the personal and social devastation wrought by the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Europe, 1709. Russia and Sweden are at war. Two French duelists are exiled by King Louis XIV of France: one to the side of Czar Peter the Great of Russia, the other to the side of King Charles XII of Sweden. Although separated by war and allegiance, fate has not finished with them.

In an ordinary Moscow there is an unusual House — with a strange apartment in which not a single resident has stayed for long. And as soon as an independent mother and her lovely 8-year-old daughter moved there, the new residents find out that their living space is not that ordinary, and that the real House Elf lives there. But the House Elf has long been offended by the whole human race and would do all imaginable filth in order to remain alone in the ill-fated apartment.

Our eternal theme is crime and punishment. In Boris Godunov, the problems of conscience and existential choice are linked to the history of the country. Pushkin says that these things are woven into a mysterious knot or pattern. The choice of each of us is also the choice of our own history. An incorrect individual choice or a karmic mistake can lead to a chain of fatal events. If a person finds himself in power, it can become a problem for the whole people.