Seventeen Moments of Spring (Russian: Семнадцать мгновений весны), also Seventeen Instants of Spring is a 1973 Soviet TV miniseries. It was filmed at Gorky Film Studio, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the book with the same title by the novelist Yulian Semyonov. The series comprises 12 episodes 70 minutes each.
The series is about the life of Soviet spy Maksim Isaev operating in Nazi Germany under the name Max Otto von Stirlitz, played by the Soviet actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov. Other leading roles were played by Leonid Bronevoy, Oleg Tabakov, Yuri Vizbor, Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev, Rostislav Plyatt, Vasily Lanovoy, and Mikhail Zharkovsky.
The plot is driven by Stirlitz's (ultimately successful) attempts at thwarting negotiations between SS General Karl Wolff, representing Walter Schellenberg and Heinrich Himmler, and American intelligence operative Allen Dulles in Bern, Switzerland during the final months of World War II. Dulles, portrayed in the show as acting without the authorization of the President, is interested in reaching a peace agreement with Nazi Germany that would leave many Nazi institutions in place in order to prevent the rise of "Bolshevism" in Western Europe. The negotiations are conducted in secret and behind the back of Hitler and, more importantly for Stirlitz, the Soviet Union.
