''The first revolution,
and the counter-revolutionary period which followed it (1907-1914)
laid bare the true nature of the czarist monarchy,
pushed it to its limits,
and exposed the rottenness, the corruption,
the cynicism and the debauchery among the Czar's followers,
with the monstrous Rasputin leading the pack...''
V.I. Lenin ''Letters from Exile''
MOSFILM
Second Artists' Association
Russia
The Russian Empire is a vast territory
straddling Europe and Asia.
A land of 170 million inhabitants, the largest monarchy in the world.
An agricultural country, with industry only moderately developed.
A country of great poets, writers,
thinkers, and revolutionaries.
A country where two-thirds of the population is illiterate.
A country of enormous social contrasts,
where bureaucracy and censorship are omnipresent,
where the authorities stifle human rights.
The First World War has revealed
the patent bankruptcy of government
and accentuated its weaknesses and internal contradictions.
Crushing military defeats have caused the loss of Poland,
Lithuania, parts of Latvia and Byelorussia.
The army was almost out of ammunition.
A severe fuel shortage paralyzed transport.
All attempts to solve the food crisis
came to nothing.
The black market flourished. Speculation, corruption,
wasting of public funds were rampant.
The foreign debt climbed to 51 billion gold rubles.
Russia owed money to France, England,
the United States, Belgium, and many other countries.
Russia's economic independence was at stake
and her political independence seriously compromised.
The situation was critical.
Russia was about to experience an upheaval that would affect
not only her history, but that of the entire world.
Written by Semyon LUNGIN and llya NUSINOV
Directed by Elem KLIMOV
Director of Photography Leonid KALASHNIKOV
Production Designers: Shavkat ABDUSALlMOV, Sergey VORONKOV
Music by Alfred SCHNITTKE Sound by Boris VENGEROVSKY
Conductor Eri KLAS
Starring
Alexei PETRENKO
Anatoly ROMASHIN
Velta LINE Alissa FREINDLIKH
AGONY
Russia. 1916
I'm ready to take any punishment if Your Majesty
should be displeased with me.
I trust my painting won't inhibit your ideas.
If I'm overstepping my position, you just have to say one word,
and I shall resign my post as President of the Duma.
What's this all about, Mikhail Vladimirovich?
The best of Mother Russia's sons, elected deputies of the Duma,
representing all of the Guberniyas...
Put it simply, if you please.
Your Majesty, it is for your own safety.
We're on the eve of the events, the result of which we can't foresee.
What the government, and you personally, are doing
is enraging the citizens to such an extent, that anything is possible.
The Lord will arrange it all.
Please allow me to doubt that.
And another thing. You've got to get rid of him.
Of whom?
In the name of the patriots who pray for the well-being of the crown,
I beg you to chase him out.
The influence he has gained over your august family...
- ...over affairs of state... - Now wait...
...over the clergy...
You may tell those patriots
that the private life of my family is my own concern.
I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, Your Majesty.
Disgusting.
These masterpieces are being exhibited in the provinces, too,
and to the army!
My people love me.
Russia's reigning House of Romanov.
The Romanov aristocratic family dates back to the 13th century,
when a certain Lithuanian nobleman, Glanda Kambilla,
after taking upon baptism the name of Ivan,
came to Russia.
His son, Andrei Kobyla, had five sons of his own:
Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Yolka, Vassily Ivantai,
Gavrila Gavsha and Fyodor Koshka,
from whom were to come Russia's 17 ruling families.
The first Russian czar of the Romanov dynasty
was Mikhail Fyodorovich, who came to the throne in 1613.
The seventeenth and last Romanov czar was Nicholas II.
He was born in 1868.
His father was Alexander III.
His mother, Princess Dagmar of Denmark,
who in Russia took the name of Marie Fyodorovna.
He was privately tutored at the palace.
In 1894, he married
the German Princess Alix of Hesse,
who became the Czarina Alexandra Fyodorovna.
Nicholas II succeeded to the throne in 1894.
The coronation festivities were marred by the Khodynka,
a bloody trampling on people in Khodynka meadow in Moscow.
In the course of its 300-year history, the Romanov dynasty
had survived many upheavals:
the peasant insurrections led by Razin and Pugachev,
the Decembrist uprising, the Narodnaya Volya movement,
and the revolution of 1905.
However, never before had the future
looked so ominous for the royal family.
Nothing short of a miracle could save the situation.
l. F. Manassevitch-Manouilov
''Manouilo'', ''Vanka Cain'', journalist
I.L. Goremykin, Prime Minister
A.A. Vyrubova, friend of the lmperial family
You think there's no way the project can go through?
It was hopeless to start with.
A million rubles, all for a whim!
It would mean to bring the railroad to the spring.
If Mr. Voyeikov wants to provision his troops with mineral water,
he'd better transport it at his own expense.
What kind of attitude is that? Do we measure patriotism in rubles?
I don't know, Ivan Fyodorovich.
But it's a miracle! A spring suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
Russian mineral water ''Kouvaka''! It cures anything!
- Oh, come on! - That's really so!
Yesterday Chaliapin was singing Mephistopheles, and...
It'd make the soldiers a lot happier to think their country had done it.
- No, no, and no, Ivan Fyodorovich! - To spend a million rubles!
- The way things are at the moment. - I'm not sure...
Grigory Efimovich promised the general...
Here's the general now.
Do you mean that Grigory Efimovich has drunk the water?
He has and approved of it!
Ivan Loginovich!
My dear, you know of my high regard for Grigory Efimovich!
You mustn't criticize a man of the God.
Mineral water!
The soldiers are starving! They need bread!
Man doesn't live by bread alone!
- Oh, forget it. - What do you mean, forget?
Rather than pillage poor Mother Russia, pity her!
You're the one who should pity her. It would help you to run her better!
Ivan Loginovich, I'm losing my faith in you.
There is no faith any more! Not in anything, nor in anyone!
Leave me alone!
Speaking.
Listen to your cough, you old walrus!
It must be God's punishment for your greed, you old hippo!
Who is this?
Clean out your ears, they've been blocked up.
- Grigory Efimovich? - You recognized me, didn't you?
I already said that it won't work out!
A million rubles, all for nothing!
You want a bigger slice of the cake, is that it?
Do you know it's past four o'clock now, Mr. Rasputin?
You've got no right to disturb me at this time!
You have no right to talk to me in this manner!
Cry old nanny-goat!
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, alias Novykh.
Born in 1868 in the village of Pokrovskaya
in the district of Tyumen, in Tobolsk Guberniya.
No known signs of insanity in his family.
Nicknamed ''Snotnose'' by his boyfriends.
Started drinking at the age of 15.
Mixed-up in brawls and scandals,
involved in illegal assemblies of a sect called ''The Flagellants''.
Twice convicted and sentenced to be whipped.
At the age of 27, suddenly became an itinerant preacher,
calling himself the ''Holy Starets''.
Visited many monasteries in Siberia and Central Russia
and made pilgrimages to Mount Athos and Jerusalem.
By the turn of the century,
rumors about the Siberian prophet and faith-healer reached the capital,
and he soon appeared there himself.
He was welcomed into the salons of the aristocracy,
and it wasn't long before he was received at the lmperial palace.
Within a short time, Rasputin acquired tremendous influence.
In the past, numerous prophets,
clairvoyants, hypnotists, healers, believers in the occult,
all had their place in court circles.
They usually turned up in times of trouble,
in years of spiritual or ideological crisis.
But never before in Russia's history had any one person
held as much influence as Grigory Rasputin.
What will tomorrow bring? Show us Your Way, O Lord.
How many thorns litter the crooked path of life...
I have the figures, Your Majesty: ln the year 1915,
I received 928 reports of strikes.
That's almost a thousand, Your Majesty.
More than half a million people participated in these strikes.
- And the exact figure? - 589,528 people.
A.N. Khvostov, Minister of the lnterior
At least 213 strikes were proven to have been politically inspired.
How do you mean?
- Well, Khvostov? - Do you wish me to tell the truth?
It's revolution, Your Majesty.
How lightly you use this word.
Not at all lightly, Ivan Loginovich.
Only we must suppress these actions, and do it rapidly...
Men must be punished if they disobey,
harsher censorship must be imposed,
all revolutionaries must be tried, especially the Bolsheviks!
The Duma has to be dissolved now!
It's time for making decisions, Your Majesty!
The country is boiling over, Your Majesty.
However, all these measures will only precipitate disaster...
We must pacify people.
The stick, always the stick. We have to make some concessions.
Mercy and tolerance, that's what we need.
We have to maneuver, but wisely.
Of course, this is not the rebellion of 1905, but the situation's grave.
But on one point I agree - you have to make your decision.
A.A. Polivanov, Minister of War
During military operations at the Riga beachhead,
soldiers of the 2nd Siberian Division refused to engage in combat.
- Instigated by the Bolsheviks! - And what did you do?
- Had them shot, Your Majesty. - Very wise.
The division was pulled out of action.
By court-martial decree, twenty four soldiers were executed.
Two million men have been taken prisoner by the enemy.
Nearly a million and a half have already deserted.
And these figures seem to be growing worse with every day.
Down our village road Thoma's riding on a goat.
Lyoshka's straddled a stray cat, There he goes, the spoiled brat.
Thoma, where do you go? Stop there, Thoma, whoa, whoa!
Leave it alone!
Nicky! The crisis is past!
Oh, thank you, Holy Father!
Thank you for coming to us from your distant Siberia.
You heeded our plea and rekindled our hope.
For you are the people,
and the people know the truth!
You are our Savior, show us the One True Way,
light up the path to righteousness,
help us in our misery...
God help us to survive it!
What's that?
The moral decline, the degradation!
Ah, Goremykin, Goremykin!
To accept bribes... and from whom?
The ninth of
January,
1905
Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov
The Khodynka. 1896
1,389 dead: trampled and crushed.
1,300 more seriously hurt.
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
More than 400,000 dead, wounded or missing.
The 1905-1907 Revolution: 65,830 executed or tortured to death.
The Lena Massacre, 1912: Over 500 people shot.
World War I: From 1914 to 1915,
Russia had over 3 million dead, wounded,
or missing in action.
I.P. Manus, millionaire
- I don't want to. - You're completely drunk.
You'll get twenty times your money back in a year.
What am I saying, a year! Are we spilling our blood for nothing?
In three months at the most.
D.L. Rubinstein, banker
Prince M.M. Andronnikov, known as ''Bug-Prince'', ''Beggar''
- Impossible to approach him. - Say his presence'd be an honor.
I'm scared of him.
You'd rather be at the front?
You won't regret it. This is the chance of a lifetime!
A landowner from Minsk badly needs cash.
He owns more than a thousand acres of forest in Baranovitchi.
And two thousand acres of farmland!
I'm still not interested!
Well, that's your decision. If you say so.
- I'll give them to Dmitry Lvovich. - I'll take them.
I promised to someone else.
- Give the papers back! - No, damn it, you won't get them!
Grigory Efimovich, you've been invited to Room 8.
His Excellency
Minister of lnterior, Mr. Khvostov,
and His Highness Prince Andronnikov are dining there.
Do you want to be sent to trenches?
Grigory Efimovich, blessed Father, I beg you...
They've ordered me.
''Bring him or else...'' they said.
I've got a family:
a wife and three kids.
And a mother too, old and ill. Think what will they do to me?
What are you waiting for? Send away the girl and go!
Don't you see, the man is weeping?
And a good man, too.
Varya, go to your friends.
Do you hear me, my good soul?
- Where do we go? - I'll bring you to the door.
You just try to stand up, Grigory Efimovich.
It's a secret meeting, isn't it? We must creep quietly.
Please, Grigory Efimovich.
Your Highness? He's on his way.
- How much farther is it? - Right down there.
This way, Grigory Efimovich.
Bless our dinner, Grigory Efimovich.
I can smell that the soup is good.
Bless the Holy Spirit that lives within us,
now and ever and unto ages of ages!
Amen!
Please accept this as a token of our respect
and in recognition of your arduous work.
How about some Madeira? Mine was excellent the other day,
but this would make an angel cry.
Why did you do that? I meant to please you.
Soon you will all burn in hell.
We don't count. The Czar does. And his son, the heir.
We're worried about them.
Russia needs an iron fist. And Goremykin didn't fill the bill.
What's the use of discussing him now?
Mother Russia appreciates your intervention.
Now the crucial question is:
who is going to take up the reins of government?
The next Prime Minister must be a specialist, a man
who is well-acquainted with our domestic problems.
All the troubles come from within.
We're faced with mutiny, revolution.
Would it not be logical to appoint the man
who has held the post of Minister of the lnterior?
Two men meet on Nevsky Prospect. One of them says:
''Yesterday I saw you at the Opera with my mistress.''
''My dear sir,'' the other says, ''that was my wife.''
Aren't you pleased with yourself?
- Are you crazy? Let me go! - I've got to have you!
- Let go of me! - I saw you and I wanted you!
Scoundrel!
L.V. Nikitina, lady-in-waiting,
daughter of Commandant of the Fortress of Peter and Paul
Editorial office? This is Nathanson.
Take this down for a front-page special. Scandal in a restaurant!
Baroness N. has been assaulted. The husband rushes to her defense!
That colonel hit Grigory Efimovich right in the face!
- Arrest him immediately! - Which one?
Yes, sir! Follow me!
Holy Father! Blessed savior, I've been looking for you.
- Mama has sewn it... - Come on, quick...
- Our Czarina herself. - ...away from this debauchery.
Brute! I'm going to kill you!
Let me go! Scoundrel!
I'll kill you, bastard!
Clear the way!
All that work for nothing.
- She stole him, didn't she? - You bet.
Boris Vladimirovich Sturmer, Court Chamberlain,
member of the State Council, owner of numerous estates
Progressing paralysis and euphoria.
The squirrels have taken over upstairs?
Exactly.
Dubious morals, has a mistress.
Who? Not this one, I hope?
Greedy, obstinate, ambitious, loves power.
Who doesn't?
In our troubled times,
when there's no faith,
those who are at the wheel of the ship
should first of all perceive with their heart
the very essence of Russian autocracy.
To fathom Russia with your mind A futile task: no yardstick so pure.
Her might is of a special kind. Have faith in Russia, that'll endure.
What do you think, Grigory Efimovich?
I don't understand a thing. But go on, go on.
The Slavs don't think with the mind but with the spirit,
with the inner being, which is the natural source of our strength.
The Czar has maintained his popularity because he recognizes it...
- Sturmer, who are you? - What?
- Who are you? - What do you mean?
- German? - God forbid.
- A hundred percent Russian. - You go to church?
Yes, Grigory Efimovich, wait...
See? My cross...
The cowl doesn't make the monk.
- I don't follow you. - Never mind. Go on.
Our strength lies in the alliance between the people and the monarchy.
Thus we can resist the dangerous alien intrusion.
The invasion of foreign ideals weaken our national purity
in exactly the same way as the desire for money
weakens the spirit of humanity.
- Boris! - Yes?
You planning to dip into the till?
Lord in His Grace has cast His blessings on our nation
by placing just one step from the throne a wise and prudent advisor,
a man of the peasantry who has the intelligence...
...Of all hope bereft.
In the steppe out of the way
A coachman was freezing to death.
Mustering up his strength
Before his final rest... To his comrade...
To his comrade he
Passed his last behest.
Dear comrade of mine...
Don't bear...
Don't bear a grudge,
Here, in this steppe,
Bury me and notjudge.
Say to my dear wife A word of farewell.
Give her my wedding ring, For her to remember me well.
Hey, old man?
What do you want?
Want to be Prime Minister?
You've got it.
But remember: a single error, and it'll be your funeral!
F.F. Yussoupov, Prince, Count Soumarokov-Elston
Concentrate on the navel area.
Exhale and contract the stomach.
Now inhale, with your diaphragm relaxed...
Breathe deeply, ladies and gentlemen...
There's no part of our body that...
Dmitry Pavlovich, Grand Duke
- What are you doing here, Felix? - I came to say goodbye.
- I'll be leaving very shortly. - Where to?
I might go to France or England. Or Rome.
- For how long? - For good.
P.A. Badmayev, ''Owl'', ''Rotten'', Tibetan physician
Yesterday, at a gallery we ran into ''Holy Father''.
He took one look at lrina and went berserk. Do you understand?
We had left immediately.
The minute we walked in the house, we were told he had called twice.
''My dear, why did you take your wife away? When shall I meet her?''
I think I'm going mad.
I talked with the Czar the other day.
They close their ears to anything said against their saintly Grigory.
You'll notice that our peasants never have lung diseases.
I hope the war will be over soon.
I'll be off to the country and I'll sleep in a stable!
Dmitry, we need to make a decision.
Breathe deeply, ladies and gentlemen.
That will mean blood.
His is the devil's blood. When it flows, it'll be green.
- Who will do it? - There are good people in Russia.
M.M. Sukhotin, Lieutenant
Now, the breathing exercise known as ''The Crow''.
We bring the cripples back to life.
Join the workshop of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.
- The water is boiling. - Remove it from the fire.
Sasha, dear...
- Who is she, all dressed up? - lt's the Baroness.
Oh, that's her husband who punched our Holy Saint!
She's to see the Holy Father. He has been warned.
He's busy. All the garbage that walks in here...
- I love my husband so much... - I love my husband too.
There's no sin in that, my dear.
You are going to save your husband, and be purified, too.
Give the bearer of this a job...
Needs salt.
That will do it.
- Thank you, our benefactor! - The Lord bless you.
Please, excuse me, may I get through?
Ah, Vanya, good to see you. How is our friend Khvostov?
- Angry. Spit on him, and he sizzles. - He'll cool down.
He may arrange to have you summoned before the Duma.
We don't need summons.
- Grigory Efimovich, if you would... - Can't you see he's busy? Go away!
Why? Why should he go first?
I've been here since Tuesday. Here's my number.
What number? Beat it!
Beat it before I send you to the trenches!
All of you, out! You with the baby, you can stay.
The rest of you sing! You'll be called later.
There's one thing you might do. You've got plenty of influence.
See to it that the Emperor appears before the Duma.
Why the devil would I get him mixed up with those vultures?
You want to neutralize the Duma, don't you?
Holy Father, she's on the phone again.
She's singing...
What's your name, my little nightingale?
Keeps singing...
Calls up and sings. Or else she asks if I'll come to her.
But she won't tell me her name.
All right.
Submit, you whore!
Protect me, Lord!
The Satan!
You dare come here naked? Is my house a brothel?
Write!
God is love!
Hatred is death!
Hallelujah!
Why are you tormenting the bird? Give it here!
Sleep.
It's sleeping.
Are you free now?
- What? - Get out!
Her lmperial Majesty is on the telephone.
Mama! May the Lord keep you.
Holy Father, you wanted to speak to me?
Has something happened? What?
I'm so frightened. Tell me.
A dream I dreamt last night. A long road.
And in the middle of it a nest and six big eggs ready to hatch out.
And among the eggs sat the Duma.
With a golden halo all around.
Papa came up the road, very reluctantly.
Around his head there was a halo, too
- And those halos joined together. - What?
And as they joined a white dove flew out.
But the Duma is filled with our enemies!
It must be a sign sent by God to guide us.
Only what is His Divine meaning?
My humble brain is bewildered. I'm in the dark.
Bless you, Mama.
I'll be praying.
He will come.
List of Deputies of the Duma
There are 19 parties listed here.
And I'm sure there're others not on the list.
- What are we to do with them? - They've all sprung up in 10 years.
We're the ones who let it happen.
- Are they calling strikes? - Not all of them.
- They will, give them time. - The Lord protect us.
Now then... yes...
It's not a huge sum, but he swears his editorials will be favorable.
I've met this Zamyslovsky, he's a crook.
He sings the praises of other crooks. You want to be in that boat?
- Mama gave her word. - Break it. Tell her I had a vision.
- Why are you frowning? - My leg.
Come on, relax for a while.
There's no one to see you here. Limp as much as you want.
I've got here a list of certain men
Badmayev will try to put on the Council of State.
Wily old owl. He's been busy. Who is he pushing?
- Izmailov. - May the Lord take him soon.
Chagodayev.
He'd be safer in some commercial post.
Ivan Ivanovich Korf.
We'll accept that one. He's a thief, but one of us.
- And Nikitenko. - Scum!
He'd murder his mother for a song. But he's useful.
That means we've got two: Korf and Nikitenko.
How do we convince Papa?
Tell him: ''Grigory says God has ordained it.''
Why do you look so foxy? What's the matter now?
I was watching you
when you spoke with Mama on the telephone.
Halos joining together...
Joining together, notjoining together... What's the difference?
So the dream was a lie. But Papa did come to the Duma.
And he's no worse off, either. They say he wept a few tears there.
And that way we stopped nasty rumors that're going around.
That's one good thing. There's been too much talk about me.
Papa is afraid of his own shadow!
He does what Mama says, and Mama acts like a blind person.
She will follow you anywhere you lead.
- We lead her together. - I'm frightened, Grigory.
Afraid of falling, eh? It's a long fall from where we are.
You'd get a lot worse than a crooked leg.
I'm afraid of losing Mama. I hope she'll never lose faith in you.
Have you?
Pay her a visit. Comfort her.
If I go to the palace too often, the stairway'll start squeaking.
The Grand Dukes gather like flies to honey, eager to push you away.
Let them try.
You've got to go there.
Do something mystical. You're good at it.
- Asking for a miracle, aren't you? - I'm not asking for anything.
You're a liar! You want a miracle! Everyone wants one!
The spookier you make it the better they like it.
Put it up your ass! As long as I'm here, you're here!
But when I'm not here, who will be the one to blame?
I see the pit of Hell, yet I go on. I smell sulfur, and still I go on!
The Grand Dukes are willing to pay me millions if I go away.
And those offered me 250,000, damn them!..
Go to hell, all of you! I'll go, don't worry.
I'll go just the way I came, with a sack on my shoulder.
I despise your filthy city. I want to see flowers and trees.
And you can all wallow in your stink!
I put a dozen of underwear in the drawers, and they steal them all!
Get out!
You go too!
And you?
Is the Lord within your soul right this second?
Yes. I am I, Grigory.
You're with me.
We will walk together.
Until the end!
Yes.
Please excuse me... Do we accept the ripped money?
We do! We'll accept anything!
Down with the Czar! Long live the Republic!
Never had the gulf between the power and the people
been so great.
Time had run out for a peaceful solution.
Now it was up to the people
to decide their own destiny.
End of Part One