levelclearer Joke about 17 moments of spring ? OK...Beer garden in Germany... There is a queue on the bar stand: Mueller, Shellenberg, Iceman... Shtirlitz runs into the bar, and instead of lining up behind Iceman, he stands before Mueller and gets his beer from under his nose.Mueller: What's up Shtirlitz ? There's a line there. Shtirlits: Soviet Union Heroes (a State award and title in the Soviet Union) are served out of turn !!! (a rule existed in Soviet Union, a privilege to the people honored with high State awards)Another...Shtirlitz wakes up after a good beer party with a hangover and tries to remember who he actually is ? An obergruppenfuehrer SS Shtirlitz or Russian spy Isaev ? The door opens and a doctor comes in: "Good time you had yesterday, comrade Tikhonov (the actual family name of the actor)".

mizb Made in black-white as most TV receivers in Soviet block in the 1970's were black and white.The story covers last weeks of existence of Hitler's Reich and some attempts of SS generals to conclude a separate armistice with USA and UK. The SS colonel Stirlitz is a Russian spy trying to prevent it. Some front combat scenes are shown as intermezzos. Although the war was finished more than 60 years ago, we still do not know all its details and secrets. Maybe, some German leaders tried to break the coalition between Anglo-Saxon powers and Russia. But the range of Soviet infiltration of central entities of 3rd Reich (like RSHA, General Staff or NSDAP Chancellory) has not been fully explained so far. Anyway, this is a very interesting film to watch.

AnsM29 I've seen this movie a lot of times and year after year I have a strong desire to watch it again. The story never ends. I got addicted to it as millions of Russians did. The war still means a lot to me. The movie spins the brain in the right direction. The best war series ever seen. Nothing to compare with the modern blockbusters. Totally different athmospere and completely different result. Simply the best.

Maksik In the history of Soviet movie there are only two examples of transformation of screen heroes in folk story ('anecdote') heroes. The first was famous "Chapayev" (1934) and the heroes were Chapayev and Petka. The second is "Semnadtsat mgnoveniy vesny" and the heroes are Stirlitz and Muller. Despite of thousands of anecdotes, "Semnadtsat mgnoveniy.." is a very nostalgic, humane, sincere movie and it delivers to us moments of truth. I like it very much.