A Russian series about the tragedies caused by the brutal violence of teenage gangs fighting for survival, money and love in the last years of the Soviet Union has become a sensation in Russia, Reuters reports.

The series, titled “Hooligan’s Promise – Blood on the Asphalt”, shows the brutality of the criminal gangs that divided their spheres of influence in the city of Kazan in 1989, when Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms put the Soviet Union on the path to its final collapse two years later.

In Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan region, where almost 50% of the population is ethnic Tatar, many teenagers tried to find meaning in a world turned upside down by joining gangs that offered them something like a big family, security, money, adventure and death

The series does not try to control emotions: the three main characters – Andriy, Marat and Volodymyr – face extreme violence and see their dreams shattered by murder, rape, suicide, madness and finally themselves.

“For me, this is a story about revenge and redemption, about the fact that evil always begets evil, that you can only redeem evil,” Andrii Zolotaryov, one of the series’ two screenwriters, told Reuters.

Hooligan’s promise – blood on the asphalt has become the most popular series broadcast in Russia, attracting millions of viewers to online platforms, although some officials have called for it to be banned on the grounds that it glorifies criminal gangs and corrupts Russian youth.

The series, which returns Russians to the troubled times of the collapse of the USSR

One of the critics is the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, who believes that the series should be banned because it offers a romanticized image of criminal gangs and risks reviving them.

It is interesting that the series is also popular in Ukraine, despite the defensive war against Russia.

The end of the Cold War caused a wave of optimism about democratic values ​​and the West in most Eastern European countries. But for tens of millions of Russians, the hopes of that period were dashed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which, in addition to freedom, brought dire poverty and an orgy of violence and corruption.

“Society is still divided about those times: were they a blessing or a nightmare?” says screenwriter Zolotaryov, who was born in 1982, but says he still remembers how the cemetery near his family’s home quickly filled up during a violent crime wave. 1990s.

The series tells the story of Andrii Vasiliev, a young 14-year-old pianist who speaks fluent English, is gentle and has a bright future ahead of him. He uses a rare local slang word from the 1980s, “ciușpan” — a term with a negative connotation used to describe a foreigner — to explain the appeal of gangs.

A series of extreme violence captivated Russians

“It was very difficult for people with ambition and charisma not to join gangs. This is such a paradox,” says Zolotaryov.

But violence destroys the lives of all the main characters. Marat’s girlfriend, Aigul, is raped by a member of a rival gang. Alienated by Marat’s gang, she commits suicide. Marat, overcome with remorse, betrays his fellow policemen and joins the communist youth to try to exonerate Aigul.

Volodymyr, nicknamed “Vova Adidas”, is trying to escape the world of criminal gangs after recently returning from the Soviet-Afghan war. But he is killed on the station platform in front of his girlfriend.

As for Andrii, his mother is going crazy, and the state is trying to take in his younger sister. He ends up playing the piano in a Russian prison.