A randomly found diary brings back to life the legacy of composer Alexei Butakov — this is how Elena Zelinskaya's novel "The Last Russians were Seen in Belgrade" begins. The endless Russian run brings the first wave of emigrants to the Balkans. They have only a couple of decades of peaceful life between two disasters — from the Civil War to the Second World War. Each turn puts the novel's characters—musicians, writers, and journalists—in front of a classic 20th-century collision.: how to remain human in the millstones of history. And each of them makes his own choice. What remains when all is lost? They had an answer. A hundred years later, another wave throws new Russians onto the Belgrade coast. What kind of mark will they leave in the history of this great city? Will they be able to find themselves and their place in a new life? How will they cope with their choice: between guilt and responsibility, losses and discoveries? Those last Russians are gone. But every evening the curtain rises at the Belgrade Opera and Ballet Theatre. Pearl threads sparkle in the sun in a white city on the shore of Lake Ohrid. And the city streets have Russian names. This is the point that history has set in their fate. And our story is just beginning...