The only Soviet passenger, engineer Varvara Komarova (played by Lyubov Orlova), is forced to assume multiple roles: tour guide, diplomat, resource manager, and entertainer.
The characters journey to a newly developed city in Siberia, witnessing the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station and the launch of a rocket to the Moon.
By the film’s conclusion, the reformed American millionaire gives a sensational interview, while the main heroine, Varvara, delivers a heartfelt call for world peace.
Soviet critics called the "Russian Souvenir" plotless, ideologically weak, superficial, propagandizing "architectural excesses in construction during the cult of Stalin's personality.
[14] Alexander Malakhov from Kommersant, evaluating this work by Alexandrov and Orlova, wrote in 2005: "They could not get rid of ideological cliches, and in the 60s, stories about reeducated American millionaires caused not laughter, but irritation.