The original title was "Hidden Enemy" - playing on the fact that the western spy Sotnikov, played by Petr Shelokhonov, was shown infiltrating the Soviet rank and file while he wore a Soviet uniform. This version of the film was banned and destroyed as anti-Soviet. Then the working title was changed to "Amnistii ne podlezhit" ("Not Eligible for Amnesty") but it was banned and destroyed as well.
The original film was banned and destroyed because the Soviet authorities did not allow the western spy Sotnikov, played by Petr Shelokhonov, to be shown infiltrating the Soviet rank and file while he wore a Soviet uniform. Filmmakers of Razvyazka were accused of anti-Soviet "false representation of Soviet law enforcement" in the letter by the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs. The film was destroyed after the 1969 assassination attempt on the Soviet leader Brezhnev. After that, the film script was completely re-written and now the spy, played again by Petr Shelokhonov, was ordered to wear a distinctive white shirt to make him look different from the plain-clothed Soviet KGB. This was ordered by Soviet censorship according to official view of the Soviet propaganda.
Release of the original film titled "Hidden Enemy" (later replaced by Razvyazka) in 1968 was stopped and aborted because the first version of the film was banned by the Soviet leadership after the first theatrical screenings in 1968. The screenings were unfortunately attended by the Soviet law enforcement rank and staff. At that time, the Soviet leader Brezhnev was nervous with the Prague Spring revolution that involved the Soviet tanks invasion of Czechoslovakia that caused anti-war protests in the Soviet Union and across the world.
Filmmakers Nikolay Rosantsev, Anatoly Romov, and Petr Shelokhonov were censored. Petr Shelokhonov was restricted from playing leading roles for several years in Soviet films, he was also banned from traveling outside of the Soviet Union.
The film was watched by 23.7 million viewers in the USSR.