Made in honor of the 2005 60th-Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War (WWII). The first episode premiered on television on May 8th, the eve of the traditional May 9th celebrations in Russia of "Den Pobedy" ("Day of Victory").
Inspired by a true WWII story of a young Russian anti-aircraft searchlight operator who mistakenly lit-up a Soviet fighter plane during a bombing raid, causing it to be targeted and shot down by anti-aircraft gunners. The pilot bailed out and lived. After the war, the pilot and the searchlight operator met by chance on a streetcar, and, neither knowing who the other was, fell in love and married. Only several years later did they discover their wartime connection. Upon hearing this romantic and ironic story, producer Stanislav Arkhipov decided to have this fictionalized account made to mark the 2005 60th-Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War (WWII).
All the aerial combat seen is actual Soviet and captured German archival footage from WWII, never seen before in the west. It is historically accurate to the time frame of the story. The ill-fated Soviet fighter plane actually depicted intercepting and attacking the German bombers is a Yakovlev Yak-1, which was the fighter in use at the time. The Yak can be easily identified in the archival footage as being from this series: the pilot has removed the sliding portion of the canopy. (The Yak-1 had a design flaw in its canopy that caused the sliding portion to jam shut at high air-speeds. To avoid being trapped inside a crashing plane, the pilots often simply removed it.)