AGONY Part Two
We agreed on twenty kopecks.
Be happy with the ten I give you, and get lost.
Sir, we agreed the price was 20.
- You want my coat, too? - You owe me five more, sir.
It's still a kopeck short. You owe me a kopeck, sir.
It's not fair, sir.
Sir, one more kopeck.
- Wait, sir, where are you going? - He'd rather be hanged than give in.
What's the big idea? Did you have to tell everyone?
- You whore! - Do you mean me?
- Where's that offensive of yours? - It'll come.
Where will it come? ln the south?
I've been told that in Minsk a landowner's fleeing the war.
His estate is in Baranovichi, it's captured by the Germans.
You sold it to me when I was drunk. Made a fool of me.
You promised me the offensive by the end of autumn, didn't you?
Then you tell me it's for Christmas, and I'm still waiting.
Moscow wasn't built in a day, either.
Let them mount an attack not in the south, but in the center.
- What are you talking about? - If not, I'll destroy you!
Sweat those extra pounds off. Everything will be all right.
- You're a scoundrel! - And you're another.
Where is he?
Badma!
What's wrong, Badma?
- I haven't slept for 3 nights. - Are you sick?
It's Karma!
I try to cross a stream -
I must reach Nirvana,
on the other bank, but I can't.
I make a step, and I'm changed into a sheep,
a step back, I'm again myself.
- You have visions too? - The sheep.
Sheep, millions of them.
- It's a sign, Badma. - Baranovichi, huh?
-The place is crawling with Germans. - We'll crush them all.
- And if they crush us? - Then it's written in the stars.
You'd send Papa to the slaughter, there'd be a lot of blood.
Sheer bloodshed...
They're already calling him ''Bloody Nicholas''.
And Papa and I are graven in same metal. Two sides of one coin.
Papa should smoke his pipe. He gets what he deserves.
With the Czarevitch on the throne, the Czarina will be regent.
The rest is in your hands.
-You're the marksman, I'm the rifle. - I point, you fire!
So, charlatan, that's your little trick!
You want to arrange the world to your liking,
and not as it was ordained by God.
Remember, you didn't say it, I didn't hear it.
But don't touch Papa. Is it clear?
You know what I can do to you.
Ah, you're back again. You managed to find me even here.
So what now?
Just tell me your address and I'll come to you.
I'll be there.
A woman, she's worse than a cat in heat.
Well, we can talk later.
Of course, Grisha. Go, amuse yourself.
You needn't think you're sinning, my little nightingale.
What is a sin, do you know?
It's like an ink stain dirtying our souls.
And once we've sinned, then the stain is gone.
Come, nightingale, we'll uplift ourselves and then we'll pray.
You corrupted wives and mothers!
Father Yakov, get started.
Brother Grigory, now is the moment of truth,
to sit in judgement over your soul.
I realize it won't be easy to fight against you.
I've been called upon not as your friend,
but as your enemy, and your merciless accuser.
In your devilish pride, you have put yourself
above mere mortals.
You seized a power that God did not destine for you.
You have undermined the foundations of Orthodoxy,
despoiled our monasteries and our churches.
You have sinned carnally, you have defiled the brides of Christ,
forcing them to lie naked in the shape of the Holy Cross.
Out with it, blasphemer, is it true that Father Yakov says?
On your knees!
I'm guilty, Father.
Why did you torment those innocent souls?
To expiate their sins.
By whose authority do you commit these acts?
- In the name of the Lord. - In the name of the Devil!
You have afflicted human souls with corruption and despair!
You presumed to take the place of the Orthodox Church!
You cast an evil spell on the Emperor!
In the name of the Lord I order you to never enter the Palace again.
Now kiss the cross, the Divine Gospel, the Holy relics!
Renounce your sin! Make him sign the oath! With his thumb!
The oath! Give the oath!
Deprive him of his member, the fornicator!
For your information, it's exactly ten o'clock. Already...
Yes, yes...
Hello, Miss? It's me. You got that?
Put me through to the Empress.
What d'you mean, not allowed to?
It's me, Rasputin.
To all of them, I'm a knife at their throats.
And it's coming... The terror is coming.
They all want a miracle. They're splitting me apart.
To some, I'm the New Christ! To others the anti-Christ.
They're hunting me like a rat.
Why do they hate me? Who am I, Badma?
You're a lecher, Grisha, a dog. And you'll perish like a dog!
Terekhov, have you got the car ready?
There's no more car.
What do you mean?
Your present status doesn't rate a car.
Stop your idiocy! Crazy lunatic!
I just left him an hour ago. We were offering prayers for you.
- That's not true! - What's not true, Your Majesty?
Everything, Madame Vyrubova.
Dearest Holy Mary, comfort me in my sadness and help me...
I beg you, Alexandra. I've reached the end of my patience.
The General Staff is in revolt, the Ministers are complaining.
This starets of yours is meddling in everything.
I have no more patience! That's it!
All those scandals, his brawling, loose women...
Don't believe them, Nicky! He's our salvation!
The Grand Dukes told me he's put a curse on the Romanov house.
Lies and intrigue! Those snakes around the Dowager Empress...
Don't you speak that way of my mother!
No, don't drive him out!
How can an Emperor drive out his own people?
And he is the people!
That man is to be exiled from Petrograd
and never to come back here!
That's the end!
O Lord!.. lt's all over. That's the end.
l must go away ragged and alone to my land.
Do not abandon, O Lord, their nest and keep it safe,
especially the little fledgling, the young czarevitch.
Protect him, Lord, and the Grand Duchesses.
Bless them and give them handsome and high-born husbands.
Shelter the Emperor, give him the vision to reject hypocrites,
support him in his solitude,
give him the wisdom and feed him well...
Not disease or famine, neither war nor pestilence...
The Pharisees shall all burn in the fires of Gehenna!
Do you hear me?.. The Czarina, the martyr...
She's a saint... a true saint...
We'll push back the enemies! Our Orthodox victory shall go on!
The Seraphs will come! With their trumpets! O Lord!
What?
Deliver Mother Russia! I've bartered my soul for her salvation...
Oh Lord! Holy Father! What is it?
Tell us! What is it?
But... why?
Baranovitchi.
Yes, Baranovitchi.
Baranovitchi?
Baranovitchi! Only what does it mean?
Shall I take the army to Baranovitchi?
But our crack units are all deployed in the Southern offensive.
Baranovitchi is on the Western front.
Nicky!
Yes! Yes, Nicky!
Yes! Yes!
But this offensive means a huge redeployment of troops
which to say the least would be difficult at this time.
In that region, the enemy has a superior advantage.
M.V. Alexeyev, Chief of Staff
Then let our fate be in the hands of Providence.
Your Majesty, the marshes will not disappear.
A.A. Brussilov, Commander of South-Western Front
We can only advance there at the speed of one verst per hour.
The soldiers are walking in muck up to their bellies.
The Germans pick them off like mosquitoes.
The gun-carriers' wheels are in water, the hot meals never arrive.
To subject the army to these conditions is madness!
And what's the opinion of my general on the Western front?
A.E. Evert, Commander of the Western Front
I'll obey all Your Majesty's orders
to the last drop of blood.
Seems to me your casualty rate
has been increasing most dramatically.
What do you mean, ''dramatically''?
Up to fifty percent. What's even worse, we've lost the finest officers.
Mikhail Vassilievich, we lost even better ones.
That's what war is about.
There's still time to revise the orders, Your Majesty.
How are you, my lad?
I shall serve Your Majesty till I die!
One shot! One shot!
One more demonstration, gentlemen.
S.S. Lazavert, Doctor
Simply fabulous.
My hand is a little unsteady today.
Fyodor!
Tell me, dear, did you hear something?
Yes, Your Highness, I did.
- What did you hear? - Some shots.
That'll be all.
You see, gentlemen? This can be only a last resort.
- Where is it? - Excuse me, I'm still deaf.
- Come on, let's see it. - It's right here.
We'll lay out the swine's favorite foods on the table.
Yes, cakes, fruits, Madeira.
This is the hydrocyanic acid. The potassium cyanide.
Provoking instant paralysis of the central nervous system.
The cyanide in the Madeira.
We hold Russia's fate in our hands.
Let's solemnly swear
that we'll sacrifice our lives, if necessary, to save
both Mother Russia and the throne from this evil threat.
To Rasputin's death!
- To his death! - To Rasputin's death!
To his death!
Go on there! Faster!
The Lord bless us!
Dmitry, son Varya, daughter
Paraseva, wife Matryona, daughter
If he doesn't fill his belly, even a pope will die.
Welcome, my dear guests.
Let us share the Lord's bounty. There's wine for the heart,
there's salt for the soul.
Bread and cheese to keep the spirit whole.
The horseradish. Better than anything!
Come on, everyone, dig in.
That ought to put a little fire in your belly.
Look who's come to join us. It's Ivan on his wooden leg.
How are you, neighbor?
Ah, my friends, you don't know how much I missed you.
I was like a mad dog in their stinking stone Sodom!
You have to comfort them, exorcise their demons...
But keep everything under your hat, or you're cooked!
Tell the Czar how to run the country.
It takes much brainwork if you ask me.
Come on, drink up, my friend.
Are all his counselors stupid or dead?
There's nothing wrong with his counselors.
So why does he waste his time with a peasant?
Talking to peasants is like mother's milk to him.
With you holding the teat, huh?
Bring on the food, bring on the drink!
Make us a feast that is fit for a king!
Here you are, children, eat!
Grigory, you're a thieving liar.
Come on, everyone, eat!
- You may speak to emperors... - You keep quiet!
Eat, everyone, enjoy yourself.
- You're the same thief as before. - Have you gone crazy?
You know that as well as I do.
I'm telling the truth. No ill feeling, but my poles are gone.
I put them carefully away in my barn.
And they've disappeared. They're stolen by Grishka.
He's quite right about those poles.
You're a thief, Rasputin!
Worthless! Always were and always will be!
Come on, Mitya, better leave him be.
Give that back, it's not yours!
Uncle Grigory, he pinched your letter...
Don't do it! lt's me, Terekhov.
It's me, see? Doing my duty...
Care of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk Province. Grigory Rasputin.
The wolf caught the sheep at Baranovitchi and slit their throats.
Say a prayer for the dead. Mama.
Makarovna!
Forgive me in the name of Christ!
Ivan! Forgive this humble servant of Lord!
Nobody will answer!
I hate you! All of you!
I'm perhaps the most ardent monarchist of all.
But there're times when we can't afford
to take a narrow view of things.
We must sound the tocsins from the high tower of Ivan the Great...
V.M. Purishkevich, Bessarabian landowner, ultra-rightist
...from which one can see every corner of Holy Russia.
For the Empire is in trouble.
Owing to our ex-colleagues,
the Bolsheviks, whom we have,
and we must all thank God for this, expelled from the Duma for good...
the country is in revolt, and perhaps even in revolution.
The Duma can only advise.
But the monarchy is in peril.
And nothing so much undermines the very foundations of the crown
as the forces of darkness
introduced by Grigory Rasputin!
Our finest Ministers are cast aside like cheap trinkets,
all because they refused to be dominated,
they would not cede
to Rasputin's dissolute demands!
The selection of the Cabinet belongs exclusively to the Czar.
lf honor counts more than career for you, gentlemen,
and if the future of Russia, her might, her power, her glory,
so closely linked to the Czar's destiny, means anything to you,
go and tell the Emperor that it must be stopped!
Ask him to free Russia from Rasputin,
and his followers, high and low.
For he's more threatening to stability than the Teutonic invader!
Allow me to introduce myself and to congratulate you.
Gentlemen, let's have a picture! For posterity!
Grigory Efimovich!
Grigory Efimovich, Ivan has been arrested.
We have to hurry.
Manassevich-Manuilov was taken to prison.
Have mercy on me, oh Lord! Take pity on me, Thy humble servant.
Ivan was arrested.
Ye who are merciful towards all, forgive this sinner and bless him.
One minute's delay might mean the end of us.
Help me lie down and sleep in peace. I, the fornicator, the sinner...
- You've got to call. - Call now, Grigory Efimovich.
Soon the bells will ring... And I will kneel, and I will sing,
and I will glorify Thy Holy Name, and the name of Thy Holy Son...
Now and for all eternity. Amen.
Lead us to Thy Holy gates...
Miss, put me through to 2-24-36.
He was arrested by order of the Minister of the lnterior.
They claim that the failed offensive was all your idea,
that I have vested interests in Baranovitchi and that I bribed you.
- Didn't you? - I? You'll be punished by God.
By God?
Sturmer is on the phone.
Hello, Grigory Efimovich.
Grigory Efimovich, are you there? Say something. Hello?
Look here, you old crock, why did you throw the good man in prison?
Is he a horse thief or something?
He's had three decorations! You can't arrest such a hero!
I'm not the Minister of the lnterior...
You've been made Prime Minister so that you'd run things our way.
- But I've been sick. - A sick man is no good to us.
Better give him a decent burial. That's what I'll say to Mama.
I don't want to listen to you, you senile old fossil.
I beg you, hear me out...
We must select a new prime minister,
who is more loyal, devoted.
- Who do you mean by we? - You!
And who is more loyal? Could it be you?
Quiet, all of you!
I wrote it... ''My eye has fallen on you. Grigory.''
Who do we send it to? Tell me!
To Dobrovolsky.
The best man for Prime Minister would be Protopopov.
I'll put a cross. Who you want it sent to?
- To Golitsyn. - Or even better, to Trepov.
Where's Annoushka?
Go and get Annoushka Vyrubova! Lidka, go and find Vyrubova!
- Ahh! No! No! - Go get her, good soul.
Well, enough, enough...
You're hurting me.
Satan!
Yes.
Very well, Your Majesty.
You can tell you troops they've got our authorization to shoot.
Mow them down! Take your sabers and impale the bastards!
We'll make 'em sorry they began, rotten Bolsheviks!..
It is he, and he alone. It is Rasputin who is guilty.
And may God be praised.
But if that happens, the blame will fall on his head.
Every abject indignity which our country's been subjected to...
P.N. Balashov, deputy of the 4th Duma, monarchist
...the appalling corruption which is staining our honor
will all be blamed on him.
It's true he's weak, he's cruel, he's pitiful, but he's the Czar.
And in Russia, that is a word that is sacred.
The Czar's reputation must stay intact.
Or all is chaos, anarchy... The bottomless pit of darkness!
Let shame be upon us if we fail in our task
of catching you in the act this very night!
Like a mad dog...
Grind him under our boots like a serpent.
V.A. Maklakov, deputy of the Duma, Constitutional Democrat
He's not a Holy Man, he's a Holy Maniac!
The country is demoralized! A wasteland, chaos...
It's time to apply leeches, to let the blood out.
Murder is wrong! No matter who kills whom,
it's immoral! lt's against God!
We can never establish a moral society
if the means we use are immoral ones.
The country is falling apart, the tide may be irreversible.
You can save these arguments for the Duma.
Can't you see what's coming? And you talk about leeches!
Try to remember how many heinous murders Russia has seen.
We must avert the catastrophe by any means, including murder!
There had been so many palace murders, and to no good result.
And no one got away with it.
All of it has latently led us to this year.
And it means we have sprung from the same dungheap.
Preaching on and on! That's all you know!
I tell you the Czar will be deposed!
And the great Russian monarchy will be gone!
And with the monarchy goes all Russia!
To demolish Russia is to demolish the world.
Why don't you eat, Grigory?
Come on, eat.
Have some pastries. I got them for you.
lf he doesn't fill his belly, even a pope will die.
Go fetch your wife.
She's upstairs, with the ladies. She'll be down soon.
Who? Where?
Try some of this.
What are you waiting for, Felix?
I don't have much time. Go get her.
Get your wife here, Felix.
Your Madeira tastes terrible, Prince.
Stinks of the barrel.
Well, where's lrina? Go fetch her.
Keep it up, don't stop!
The poison isn't working.
What? I swear...
Lazavert!
That's pure cyanide, gentlemen! Hey, watch it!
Irina!
Mitya, he's the devil! We'd better let him go.
This is taking longer than I thought. I have to go.
Gentlemen...
Can anyone drop me?
It's pure potassium cyanide, I'm positive.
I think we all better go. We'll try it some other night.
The man's stuffed with poison. It will sure become known.
We can't let him walk out of here alive.
Yes, yes, yes...
- Hurry, gentlemen. -You're losing your face, Lieutenant.
You're a Grand Duke. You're in the lmperial family.
They won't touch you. For me it's Siberia!
Felix!
Damn him, the sorcerer!
What's the matter with you, gentlemen?
Pardon...
Felix!
- Why me? - You're the master of the house.
- So what? - It'll be easier for you to do it.
He doesn't know we're here.
It's all right.
There are angels. I hear music. Get her.
Come on, come on.
Oh, God...
Bastard! I hate you!
We have to wrap up the corpse. Stop it!
Filth!
Are you crazy?
- We have to wrap up the corpse. - I'll get a curtain.
Stop it! You put on his fur coat.
Go to the car, as if you were him.
- Rotten scum. - Don't start again! Come on!
In the car!
Where is he?
Gone to a land without pain or strife,
he will return...
to eternal life.
The tears we weep for him turn to songs ofjoy...
Hallelujah, hallelujah...
I hate it! I hate this country!
The year of 1916 was almost over.
One of Russia's blackest periods was drawing to a close.
The lmperial regime was doomed.
The monarchy was living its last days.
On October 25, 1917 the new history of Russia began.
Cast
V. LINE as Alexandra Fyodorovna
A. FREINDLIKH as Vyrubova
A. ROMASHIN as Nicholas II
A. PETRENKO as Rasputin
A. ROMANTSOV as Yussoupov
S. MUCHENIKOV as Dmitry Pavlovich
Yu. KATIN-YARTSEV as Purishkevich
B. IVANOV as Lazavert
A. PAVLOV as Sukhotin
L. BRONEVOY as Manassevitch-Manouilov
B. OMAROV as Badmayev P. PANKOV as Manus
M. DANILOV as Andronnikov V. OSENEV as Sturmer
P. ARZHANOV as Goremykin A. ARKADIEV as Rodzianko
V. RAIKOV as Khvostov B. ROMANOV as Balashov
A. TRISHKIN as Maklakov A. MAIKOVA as Nikitina
N. PSHYONNAYA as Baroness M. SVETIN as Terekhov
Narrated by A. KALIAGIN
The End