Wolf (Russian: Волк) is a Russian detective television series based on the 2008 novel Stone Bridge by Alexander Terekhov.
The series won the Russian national film award Nika in 2021.
The series premiered on 7 December 2020 on the Russian online service Premier. New episodes were released weekly on Mondays and Thursdays, and the final episode was released on 28 December 2020.
The television premiere took place on 27 December 2021 on the NTV channel at 20:00, with episodes airing Monday through Thursday.
Contents
Plot
Wolf follows former intelligence officer Alexander Volk, who is freed from captivity by retired KGB general Yakov Goldman on the condition that he investigate the decades-old murder of Goldman’s son. The investigation uncovers the 1943 death of Nina Umanskaya, daughter of Soviet ambassador Konstantin Umansky, on Moscow’s Stone Bridge, entwining a web of historical crimes, political intrigue, and hidden secrets from the Stalinist era.
Central to the story is the antagonist Nikolai “Bezruk” Dolgov, a former orphan and NKVD operative whose actions shaped the fate of Nina, her classmate Sonia Rykova, and Vladimir Shakhurin, Nina’s childhood companion. Sonia betrays the teenagers, and later becomes entangled with Bezruk in a complex dynamic of captivity and trauma-bonding. Years later, Bezruk manipulates evidence to convince Nina’s father she survived, while secretly consolidating power as a ruthless industrial magnate.
Volk investigates multiple timelines and overlapping narratives, reconstructing the events surrounding the murders of Nina Umanskaya, Vladimir Shakhurin, and other historical figures. He uncovers the role of Nikolai Dolgov in the killings and in manipulating evidence to mislead Umanskaya’s father. Despite tracing the criminal activities and the consolidation of Dolgov’s power as an industrial magnate, Volk is unable to obtain sufficient legal evidence to prosecute him. The series concludes with the historical crimes exposed, while Dolgov remains alive and influential, and the consequences of past actions continue to affect the present.
Cast
Denis Shvedov as Alexander Vasilievich Volk, intelligence officer
Sergey Makovetsky as Konstantin Umansky, Soviet ambassador to the U.S.
Anton Vasilyev as Boris Mirgorodsky, Volk’s ally and assistant
Artur Smolyaninov as Nikolay Bezruk
Varvara Feofanova as Nina Umanskaya
Alevtina Tukan as Sonya Rykova
Vitaly Andreyev as Vladimir Shakhurin
Vitaly Khayev as Lev Vasilevsky, Soviet intelligence officer
Igor Mirkurbanov as Nahum Eitingon, NKVD officer
Marina Zudina as Raisa Umanskaya
Elena Podkaminskaya as Anastasia “Tasya” Petrova
Alexander Semchev as Artur Yanovich Kipnis, historian and tour guide
Linda Lapinsh as Alyona
Viktor Proskurin as Nikolai Yefremovich Dolgov
Igor Yasulovich as Vyacheslav Semyonovich Dashkevich
Gregory-Said Bagov as Lavrentiy Beria
Ilya Lyubimov as Leonid Yakovlevich Goldman, collector
Aristarkh Livanov as Ivan Alexandrovich Sukhikh
Awards
2021 — Nika Award, Special Prize of the Academy Council “For creative achievements in the art of television cinematography”.