 Based on several of Russian author Aleksandr I. Kuprin s novels, including "Poznanie (The Interrogation)" (1894), "Na perelome (At the Turning Point)" (1900), "Poedinok (The Duel)" (1905), and the autobiographical "Yunkera (The Cadets)" (1928), this 8-episode mini-series follows young Cadet Aleksandrov (Ilya Iosifov) through his training at the Alexander Military Academy in czarist Russia during the years just before the October Revolution of 1917. Although the cadets are told that they are Russia s elite, and are taught to be the leaders of the Czar s Russian Empire, their training is both brutal and unjust, and the academy and the Czar s Imperial Army are rife with complacence and corruption. And, outside the academy, events are developing that will lead Czar Nicholas II, his army, and its officers and cadets -- this very way of life -- into a collision course with history.