Based on Maxim Gorky's play of the same name, staged by the Kuibyshev Academic Drama Theatre named after Maxim Gorky.

The film is based on real events that took place in Samara - the counter-revolutionary conspiracy of 1921. The Samara GubChK brilliantly exposes the counter-revolutionary bandit conspiracy against the Soviet government. The main characters are real people. Levin, the chairman of the Cheka, was originally named Byrne and was later repressed in the 1930s.