Once Upon a Time in Rostov (Season 1)

"Once Upon a Time in Rostov" (2012) is a Russian crime drama you can watch online on iFILM, built around the Novocherkassk massacre — one of the most suppressed chapters in Soviet history. Directed by Konstantin Khudyakov, with Konstantin Lavronenko, Bogdan Stupka, and Alyona Babenko.

On the morning of June 2, 1962, factory workers at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant walked out after the government cut piece-rates and raised food prices in the same decree. The protest turned deadly by afternoon: troops fired on the crowd. For decades, Moscow erased it — witnesses were handed non-disclosure agreements, dissenters were imprisoned, and the death toll stayed classified. The series reconstructs those days through interlocking stories: a painter who stumbled into the violence, the party officials ordered to contain the fallout, and ordinary people who kept the secret for twenty years.

Bogdan Stupka's final major television role. Stream "Once Upon a Time in Rostov" online on iFILM.