Like any huge project, "The Barber Of Siberia" aroused a lot of speculation, which - along with loud promotional campaign - usually attracts attention but can lead to the opposite as well - people get tired of this noise and, as a result, lose interest in a film itself.
Fortunately, that wasn't a case with "The Barber Of Siberia": people filled movie theatres to capacity and met the director and the actors with storm of applause (for the certain reason I may be biased sometimes, but THE FILM WAS A REAL HIT!)

It may come as a surprise, but at first I didn't want to watch it ("maybe, some time later…" I used to say. - It's worth menshioning here that Oleg Menshikov, though being number one on my list of actors (along with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, I should say), didn't occupy much of my time and thoughts; I would watch a film with pleasure and go on (no visiting or making sites, no interviews to read or translate… nothing of the kind).
It was my Mum who bought tickets to "The Barber Of Siberia" - that's how I found myself in the seventh row in one of our biggest movie theatres. I guess, mostly any film captures us the moment lights go off and screen begins to flicker… We drift away to another world created by a director, actors - all those who worked on a film.
Well, I liked it from the start. :-)

…The scene where Jane (and the audience) meets cadets for the first time. They appear out of the frosty air, the world of crisp snow and trees dressed in white. We see Jane's face reflected in the window of a train compartment which also creates the impression of unreality, like some fairy-tale is about to begin. Well, I feel it like this, maybe it makes sense anyhow - the beginning of a great story has something magical about it.
I like the whole episode in the train compartment - my friend and I used to act it again and again, bringing up phrases, expressions… Oleg gives a lively portrayal of a young man who is confused and excited at the same time: he get intoxicated, of course, not only by a glass of champagne, but also by the presence of a beautiful woman - later he tells his friends, "I'm not drunk, I'm happy!"
It doesn't make sense to retell the whole film here, for you have (probably :-)) watched it, I'll dwell upon the moments I like the most…
I like the way Oleg portrays feelings - it's not a pure technique of acting: a kind of inner energy comes out - I don't know how to put it well… These energy and passion are life itself, something that touches you and makes you believe. His character may be cold and indifferent or, on the contrary, full of emotion - you believe him anyway.
Sometimes it's only his eyes, which express feelings of a character: an episode when Jane come to Andrey and makes a confession to him - there's a close up of Andrey who looks at Jane startled and says, "But how… You don't love me…" Fear, shock, confusion - everything he feels is reflected in his eyes.
If I try to name everything I like about the film and Oleg Menshikov's performance it will probably take a lot of time and space… In general, the story had an impact on me (not only me - but I'll say about it a bit later). As Oleg put it, cadets had a special quality about them - he called it "shining" (it's the only aquivalent we could find to the word he used). The sense of honour and duty, faithfulness to friends and beloved people - all these words sometimes sound like those taken from a book about bygone times. Sometimes we're even afraid to talk about such things - we don't want to sound too romantic or "old- fashioned". And to fall for a film character is naive as some serious people would say. But the moment we stop experiencing "naive" feelings we lose something essential about ourselves, I think. It makes you feel a bit out of this world - a film that touches you, an actor whose performance leaves you breathless for a period of time, but experiencing all these things we gain something.
I was a little upset when I walked out of the movie theatre that evening (and my friend was unable to talk for an hour or so :-)), for I tried to compare the thing I had just seen on the screen with reality. Of course, nowadays you can hardly run into a nice cadet somewhere in the street, and a great display of feeling in "The Barber Of Siberia" made reality seem a bit tame to me, but it's a purpose of every work of art - to make us feel, no matter how sad or joyous these feelings may be.
"Shining" of Andrey Tolstoy helped me to look at life from a different point of view and gave a sparkle of light to me.