Wolf (Russian: ÃÂþûú) is a Russian detective television series based on the 2008 novel Stone Bridge by Alexander Terekhov. The series won the Russian national film award Nika in 2021.
The series premiered on 7 December 2020 on the Russian online service Premier. New episodes were released weekly on Mondays and Thursdays, and the final episode was released on 28 December 2020.
The television premiere took place on 27 December 2021 on the NTV channel at 20:00, with episodes airing Monday through Thursday.
Wolf follows former intelligence officer Alexander Volk, who is freed from captivity by retired KGB general Yakov Goldman on the condition that he investigate the decades-old murder of GoldmanâÂÂs son. The investigation uncovers the 1943 death of Nina Umanskaya, daughter of Soviet ambassador Konstantin Umansky, on MoscowâÂÂs Stone Bridge, entwining a web of historical crimes, political intrigue, and hidden secrets from the Stalinist era.
Central to the story is the antagonist Nikolai âÂÂBezrukâ Dolgov, a former orphan and NKVD operative whose actions shaped the fate of Nina, her classmate Sonia Rykova, and Vladimir Shakhurin, NinaâÂÂs childhood companion. Sonia betrays the teenagers, and later becomes entangled with Bezruk in a complex dynamic of captivity and trauma-bonding. Years later, Bezruk manipulates evidence to convince NinaâÂÂs father she survived, while secretly consolidating power as a ruthless industrial magnate.
Volk investigates multiple timelines and overlapping narratives, reconstructing the events surrounding the murders of Nina Umanskaya, Vladimir Shakhurin, and other historical figures. He uncovers the role of Nikolai Dolgov in the killings and in manipulating evidence to mislead UmanskayaâÂÂs father. Despite tracing the criminal activities and the consolidation of DolgovâÂÂs power as an industrial magnate, Volk is unable to obtain sufficient legal evidence to prosecute him. The series concludes with the historical crimes exposed, while Dolgov remains alive and influential, and the consequences of past actions continue to affect the present.