The church scene is very unrealistic in the movie and is the first scene of many to give away the makers' ignorance or laziness towards making an authentic film. No Soviet officer in the 60s would be a religious man as religion was basically outlawed. All high-level Soviet officers were required to be in the Communist party, and Communists and God were not close. In fact, an officer who attended church would not exist for very long. Communism sought to replace religion with their own dogma, and the few churches that were allowed to remain open were mostly for the foreigners, for "pokazuha" (pretending to be something they are not to promote false beliefs of a good society by the foreigners who visit the USSR). Citizens were certainly not prohibited from going into a church but it could mean ruin or imprisonment, or at the very least a bad reputation. The military were not religious in the USSR. You will find this type of behavior in most dictatorships. I was born in the USSR and my parents were married in city hall. I left when I was 10, in 1979. In school (I finished 3 grades), we never even heard the word God or religion mentioned.
So the church scene is phony. I don't think there'd even be a church around a military/naval base.
The film has many errors that Russian/Ukranian-speaking people will notice immediately: Soldiers (and in fact all Soviet people) refer to one another as Comrade, not sir or mister. Also, a high ranking officer would never show weakness by telling the sailors of his accident and how he 'failed.' The submarine in the movie is a museum, possibly the one in San Diego. I went into it-very cramped, with only 3 toilets for 60+ men! I'm not sure, but I don't think the actual submarines had those windows painted on the sail. I believe that was done for the museum boat, but I'm not positive. Submarines do not have any windows.
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