Russian film and TV director Tatyana Lioznova, best known for her series Seventeen Moments of Spring, died on Thursday in Moscow, state TV reported. She was 87.

The Muscovite was a darling of the Soviet film industry, directing much-loved classics such as Three Poplars at Plyushchikha Street and The Carnival, which centered around life in the Russian capital.

Born to a Jewish family, her 1958 directorial debut The Memory of the Heart thrust her into the center of the Soviet artists' elite.

Lioznova reached the pinnacle of her fame directing Seventeen Moments of Spring. Putin, a former KGB spy who served in Germany, has described the 1973 series featuring a Soviet agent who thwarts Nazis, as one of his favorites.

During Soviet times, Lioznova tried to show war from a point of view that was different from the Soviet understanding, Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev told Interfax news agency, referring to the human touch she bestowed on the TV series.

She was able to make real, eye-catching cinema, he said.

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