# The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979)

> A young officer returns to post-war Moscow and joins a hard-driving criminal police squad hunting a gang and a murderer.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/65255

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 5
- Episode runtime: 73 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Stanislav Govorukhin
- Network: Central Television USSR
- Cast: Vladimir Konkin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Sergei Yursky, Viktor Pavlov, Natalya Fateyeva, Leonid Kuravlyov, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Aleksandr Belyavskiy
- TMDB rating: 8.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078655/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, tense, melancholic, wry, austere

## Synopsis

The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979) is a Soviet television crime miniseries created by Stanislav Govorukhin for Central Television USSR. Young officer Volodya Sharapov (Vladimir Konkin) returns to Moscow after the Second World War and joins the Moscow Criminal Police squad led by the charismatic, hard-driving Gleb Zheglov (Vladimir Vysotsky). Their task is to hunt the Black Cat gang that terrorizes the city, and to determine who murdered Larisa Gruzdeva, a case where Zheglov is convinced her husband is guilty while Sharapov harbors doubts. The engine of the story is the tension between method and conscience, as the detectives pursue suspects through streets, apartments, and informants in a city still scarred by war. Told across five long episodes, it is a single continuing investigation with a case-driven rhythm and a strong sense of procedural texture. Its tone is gritty, tense and melancholic, with moments of camaraderie and wry humor between the men. Its atmosphere of austere post-war hardship and rain-soaked Moscow streets recalls the Soviet police dramas of its era. Fans of The Wire and Chernobyl will find resonance in its grounded, morally complicated portrait of institutions and the people who bend them.

## Shows like The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed

- [Fisher (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/139669)
- [Policeman from Rublyovka (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58216)
- [Esenin (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/72791)
- [Banditskiy Peterburg: Advokat (2000)](https://ember.film/tv/1105138)
- [Method (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/57025)
- [Brigada (2002)](https://ember.film/tv/28467)
- [1703 (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/132646)
- [Dark Side of the Moon (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/56321)
- [The Thaw (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/56324)
- [The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/152025)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt