Sentimentalnyi Roman

This bittersweet coming-of-age story was based on a novel by Vera Panova. Near the close of the Russian Civil War, in 1923, a young man begins studying journalism at a worker newspaper and has a series of romantic adventures which cause him to mature swiftly. He rescues a beautiful girl from an abusive family situation, only to lose her to a smooth-talking swindler the first time he has to leave town on assignment. Another much nicer and more principled girl is really in love with him, but he doesn't know it. —Anonymous