MEXICO. AUGUST 1940
Oh, Frank.
My English is awful.
I have to rewind it every single time
to get all the details.
Do you believe the American journalism?
No, but I need to know how they lie to their people.
Might you just be envying them? Wishing you were the leader?
Don't feel sorry for me.
I didn't lose.
You don't look like you won either. Even at home, you're under control.
So what are your victories, Trotsky?
Here they are.
My victories.
MEXICO. 21ST AUGUST, 1940
So you seem to consider Stalin a winner, don't you?
He is a winner. He created an Empire.
No, he isn't. He's a victim. A hostage of his own old fears.
He lives in a world full of enemies.
Most of them are imaginary, though.
-As if you didn't have any. -Well, at least I feel freer than...
Hey!
-What's up with you? -What the hell!
Comrade Trotsky!
Hey, turn this thing off!
You blame Stalin a lot but it's you who restored the death penalty.
-Yes. It was a necessary step. -For whom? For you?
For the revolution.
MOSCOW. KREMLIN. 1918.
I'll take this one. I'm used to it.
Guns will be no help if they execute us.
I'd say, we got Moscow, but that does not mean the whole country.
And even if it does, we need to concentrate now
-and keep the power in our hands. -Stalin offers the same to Lenin.
They discuss the probability of replacing you with Schastny.
Where did you get this information?
It doesn't matter. Your authority is weak in the Navy
and raising Schastny could reinforce our rule and leave you behind.
-Yakov! -Yes.
Why are you so frank with me?
Let's say...
I'm worried by Stalin's power, therefore, I help his rival.
We are not rivals.
No?
There's nothing for you to worry about then.
KRONSTADT. APRIL, 1918.
Why are we waiting for him here? Why didn't we talk in his office?
He doesn't have one. He spends time on the ships or in the garrison.
I think he just wants to show us that we are now on his territory.
There he goes.
Comrade Chairman, please accept my apologies.
A condition of the Navy demands my full presence on site.
I understand that, Alexey.
You're the first hero of the Soviet Russia. No need to justify your actions.
Your ice trip is called heroic in the newspapers.
Your irony is inappropriate, comrade Trotsky.
Only because of him is the Baltic fleet now here, not under the Germans.
Can we talk face to face?
As you understand, I'm here because of a very important matter.
The Germans are heading to Petrograd, we have nothing to stop them.
If they break the front line, they will occupy Kronstadt.
In order to avoid the seizure of the Baltic fleet,
we made a decision to destroy it.
I understand,
that's an extraordinary measure, but we don't have any other choice.
They will not occupy Kronstadt. We will fight to the last man.
Sure. But you know,
according to the Brest agreement we don't have the right...
My people risked their lives
to get the fleet first from Revel to Helsinki, and then to Kronstadt.
And you want me to order them to destroy it?
Exactly.
It's a secret operation. Therefore, we will need some reliable men.
Surely, their job will be very well paid.
I will not participate in it.
It's not about what you want, Schastny.
-It's an order! -I refuse to obey it.
I want to remind you about your pledge of allegiance.
I took it for Russia, for the Navy. It wasn't for you to destroy it now.
Dzerzhinsky's agents learned about the conspiracy to free the Romanovs.
We should have expected it.
Keeping the Tsar in the Urals, we create a flag for them.
A symbol. Something to be united for.
This situation with the Tsar has to be resolved, anyway.
We can't leave it like that.
-What do you all think? -We will make an open process.
With a full press coverage.
We will show the whole world how the Romanovs reigned.
Two wars. Riots. Hunger.
Is the Red Army capable of taking care of his safety during the trip?
The railways are under the control of the rebellious Czechs.
They rebel after your attempt to disarm them.
Even if Comrade Trotsky provides the transportation for the Tsar,
what are the possible results after all this?
Those who support us know a lot about the Tsar's crimes.
Those who are against us will never find us convincing enough.
Sermuks, immediately summon Schastny to Moscow.
What for?
For his reward. He is a hero, isn't he?
Your pass?
-You can't go any further. -Why is that?
Wait here.
-May I enter? -Yes.
Hello, Comrade Schastny. Have a seat.
Sit down.
So, it's not about the reward?
You ignored my order.
Did you really think that I will do nothing about it?
Your orders are incompetent. Therefore, they are harmful.
Harmful? For whom?
For Russia.
You're a military man.
You should know that the disregard for orders of a superior commander is treason.
Arrest him.
Raskolnikov. Did you hear what I just said?
Comrade Schastny... Surrender your weapon.
This will not help you. The court will clear me.
Therefore no need to be afraid.
I'm not.
Don't forget, Trotsky, whose bayonets are supporting your power.
Take him away.
You defied the Navy by arresting Schastny.
Some radical Navy servicemen want to overthrow the Bolshevik government
and to impose the Baltic fleet dictatorship, led by Schastny.
So arrest them.
You arrested the Czechs already, it surely helped a lot.
More arrests will aggravate the situation in the Navy.
We are the power. We don't have to adapt.
Comrade Trotsky! I think everyone will agree
that you look too fancy for our messy work today.
We all shouldn't neglect the aesthetics of the revolution.
Dressed like that we will remain strangers for the masses.
Finally, we got to the main point.
The main point now, Joseph, is the threat of a coup.
That was the purpose of Schastny.
Do you have any evidence?
I have confidence. That's more important, Comrade Sverdlov.
Schastny is dangerous for the revolution.
It's easier to prevent it than to fight with its consequences.
And how do you fight it?
Time spent by Schastny in the cell is working for him and against us.
Same as with the Romanovs - we only tease our enemies with them.
I believe we must restore the death penalty.
-I'm against it. -That throws us back to Tsarism.
The abolition of the death penalty is the triumph of the revolution!
We must sacrifice it to save this revolution.
We are surrounded by enemies - everyone's against us:
the Germans, the Czechs, the others. Let's not forget the inner enemies.
There is a war going on. We will not win this war without such an instrument.
-This will alienate the population. -On the contrary.
I think they will approve.
We will show them that we are ready to fight for them to the end.
I think that the revolution needs the support of such an instrument.
The question is, against which class will it be used?
Take a seat. Sit down.
Just the idea of the death penalty
will be a sobering reminder to many.
I agree.
But there was nothing like that.
We can't let him get out.
He is an enemy. It's a question of survival.
For us and for the revolution.
He will be acquitted. My testimony will not be enough.
I will support you.
Do what I say. I'll do the rest. Okay?
You know what? Don't be so scared.
While chatting with the Navy officers I learned that Comrade Schastny
is spreading the rumors
that I had the plan to destroy the fleet.
Comrade Schastny was spreading this for a single purpose -
to create the counterrevolutionary conspiracy in the Navy.
If that's a conspiracy, where are any other conspirators?
Comrade Schastny!
We just need time, Comrade Schastny, to find all of them.
That will be all.
Defense has no further questions for the witnesses.
-And the Court... -The prosecution has a witness.
The Navy Staff Commissar, Comrade Raskolnikov, wants to testify.
Comrade Chairman, Raskolnikov isn't declared as a witness
or mentioned in the papers.
What's more important?
Truth or the procedure?
This is a very serious case.
If the witness wants to testify, we have to listen to him.
We are ready to listen.
Captain Schastny
was conducting the counterrevolutionary propaganda among the Ministry staff.
He also invited me to join the conspiracy to overthrow the Soviets
and impose the Baltic Fleet dictatorship. Which means his own dictatorship.
He's lying!
-Don't believe him! -Stop that immediately!
-You're a piece of scum! -Remove him from the courtroom!
-Sit. -What a rascal you are!
He's lying, don't believe his words!
Comrade Raskolnikov,
could you please tell us when all this happened?
What exactly?
When did Schastny invite you to participate in the conspiracy?
I can't specify the exact day.
Well then.
Maybe you can specify the month?
I believe it was in April.
Oh, really. Why is it only now that you're telling anyone about it?
Why didn't you tell your authorities or request an investigation into it?
I fully accept the responsibility for this fault of mine.
Tell us where this meeting took place.
I don't remember. Maybe in my office.
Might Comrade Schastny have told you any names?
You know, the people who had already joined the conspiracy.
No.
No. So there were only two of you at this meeting?
-Yes. -Fine. Well?
I have no more questions for Comrade Raskolnikov.
I don't have the heart to even call him a witness.
Impossible.
The prosecution didn't provide any convincing evidence
of the so-called betrayal of my defendant.
On the contrary. All you heard from his lawyers today
characterized him as a patriot and a loyal servant of Russia.
That would be all.
The Court is retiring for a discussion.
Comrade Trotsky, what are you doing?
-You don't have the right! -Take your seat.
Take your seat.
Comrade Trotsky, you have no right to be here.
Due to the fact that this process is of great national interest,
I must be sure that you will impose the correct sentence.
You have no right to dictate to us what to do! There are rules!
Forget those rules if they contradict common sense.
You should all understand that he is an enemy.
He's a hero.
He performed that heroic feat, and gained the popularity
in order to use it against the Soviets.
This game of his was a failure and he must get the maximum penalty.
I will consider every attempt
to soften his sentence as an act of treason.
Go on now.
Execution will make him a martyr.
It will give the servicemen a deity personified in me.
-Trust me, I know mass psychology. -They will rebel.
They won't. They don't have a leader and they are not organized.
We just need to get ahead. We must strike first.
How? Should we shoot him right here?
In the center of Moscow? People will hear.
They won't.
Agranov!
Stand here.
Start it up.
It's too dark, point the headlight at him.
Don't bother.
Aim at the white spot.
Ready!
Aim!
Fire!
MOSCOW. 1918.
Trotsky.
You killed a man who was greater than you.
I'll save Russia by killing you.
Dad.
Dad, I forgot the pencils!
-Calm down, son. -Dad, it hurts.
It doesn't hurt.
Everything is fine.
You're a good boy. Let's go.
Bringing back the death penalty for your own purposes,
you opened Pandora's box. Did you understand that?
The Romanovs immediately became the next victims.
The execution of the Tsar's family was needed
not only to intimidate the enemy or to rob them of hope.
No. First of all, we needed it, to bolster our own ranks,
to show them there is no way back.
The choice was winning or dying. Or a complete loss.
Did you know that Prince Alexey didn't die right away?
They finished him off with a bayonet.
I was never interested in it. Never.
I don't understand this interest, I consider it shameful, disgraceful.
From a historical and moral perspective
his death is the same as the fate
of the thousands of kids doomed by the autocratic rule.
Why don't you think of them, if you're so compassionate?
Do in the eyes of the Creator their lives cost less?
We were not guided by some kind of principle of fault!
We were led by the historical need.
What's the matter with them?
Do they really need to do this now when I'm working?
You started talking of morals, comment then on Voroshilov's words,
who called you the author and the inspirer of the Red Terror,
the one who strengthened his powers
with the mass executions of distinguished communists.
Voroshilov. Definitely not the best example.
He has the lists of people sentenced to death, which are signed by you.
Jacson, you can't change the world, without changing something in it.
By the laws of the class war, all my actions are fully justified.
Completely. I executed the enemies who wanted to bring people back to slavery.
Don't even think we weren't shot at.
RUSSIA. 1918.
-We shouldn't hurry. It's crucial. -Continue, comrade.
So. Our enemy is trying to get back this part of the front,
Therefore, our main task is to strengthen this area to the maximum.
No, we need to continue the attack,
put all we have into the breakthrough while the enemy is in panic.
We will incur human losses,
but on this side of the front...
Comrade Tukhachevsky, where are you going?
In your wagon.
You took my place, Comrade Trotsky.
So I'll take yours.
Comrades, can I have some tea?
Tell me, why are you with us?
-I'm serving Russia. -That's clear. But besides?
Six months ago, I was a captain. Now I command an army.
So it's all about ambitions?
You don't share our views, do you?
What's more important for you - my loyalty or my opinions?
We both prefer a strong army and that's the view we share.
You did the impossible.
You created the spirit of the army, both sacrificial and sublime.
Soldiers have accepted you, believed in you.
A month ago, you were called an outsider kike.
Now they say that all kikes are in the Kremlin and Trotsky is our man.
Your words are sweet, but the love of the people is unreliable.
They had their favorites in the Tsar's army too.
There was no Napoleon among them.
Sermuks, why are you standing there like a statue?
Report!
Comrade Trotsky, an attempt was made on Lenin's life.
A woman named Fanny Kaplan shot him with a revolver.
...CRITICAL CONDITION...
I'm heading back to Moscow. Immediately.
The worst is over.
Doctors are sure Lenin will pull through,
but such a serious wound
-will have some impact on him. -On us, as well.
This situation can be a good lesson for us all.
What lesson?
Lenin prefers the harshest measures.
Probably we should use his absence to soften the policy.
What exactly do you suggest, Comrade Kamenev?
To stop the bloodshed. To announce the national reconciliation policy.
To initiate the dialogue.
With whom? With the bourgeoisie? With priests?
We will not take everyone in this future that we are creating.
30, 50, 70 percent of the population will die,
but the rest will follow us into communism.
How come you don't see...
our enemy counters our acts of violence correspondingly.
No. Our response will be more severe.
We will get to the limits they have no courage to achieve.
The violence will be of biblical proportions.
We will abolish the court, the law.
We'll execute some significant groups that are hostile to us.
We will organize the concentration camps;
create a working system of suppressing counterrevolutionaries.
We'll punish not only the guilty ones, but the potential threats as well.
We'll show that a drop of our blood
will turn into a river of theirs.
It's the birth of a new world.
All birth labors are bloody and dirty.
That's a question of survival, us or them.
We must prove our enemy that we won't stop where they will,
and that's how we'll break their will.
I agree with Comrade Trotsky.
I'll tell your position to Lenin.
No. We have no time. We must act immediately.
-Where is Kaplan? -In the cell, of course.
Execute her right now. It should be in the newspapers tomorrow.
She's still being questioned, but she's not giving any names.
We don't need them.
We will execute those
whom we don't take into the new future.
That's the highest form of the class war.
Quite soon, the Soviet Union created by me,
will take half of the world, and then all of it.
So what do you think, did I win or did I lose?
It's all about whether you like the world you created or not.
Did you get what you wanted? Or did it turn into something else?
It's an ongoing process, Frank.
Surely, life brings its changes.
At least I did all I could
to defeat the enemies of the revolution.
Which means all those who didn't support the Bolsheviks.
Yes. Because the Bolsheviks themselves were the revolution.
They were the only ones who were fighting for the simple people.
Farmers, soldiers and sailors. Only them.
So with whom were you fighting in Kronstadt?
There were no nobles or priests out there.
Only the same workers and Navy servicemen who brought you to power.
KRONSTADT. MARCH, 1918.
For 3.5 years
the Bolshevik usurpers have been retaining power.
For 3.5 years their squads have been stripping the farmers,
condemning them to starvation.
For 3.5 years
they have been making the sacrifices to their Blood Gods -
Lenin and Trotsky.
Even servicemen themselves believe in our myth about the revolutionary sailors.
Are you sure they will not be supported by the Petrograd workers?
The one who owns the media, owns the minds, Comrade Tukhachevsky.
We told them the riot was instigated by Kozlovsky, a Tsarist general.
And the workers hate rioters even more than they hate us.
-Workers hate you? -Some of them.
Workers are not unanimous, but that's the least of our problems.
We demand the true power of the people!
Yes!
We demand to give opportunities to non-party people.
Yes!
Bring back the real power
to the Soviets that are abused by the Communist diktat.
Yes!
Let the farmers be the real owners of their plots of land!
Yes!
You'd better tell me how you will suppress the rebellion.
I'd rather refuse this mission if possible.
Why so?
This is no front.
It's one thing to fight external enemies,
and it's totally different to punish your own people. Workers, sailors.
Since when have they become yours, Comrade Tukhachevsky?
There is not much valor in it, anyway.
Let's look at it from the other side.
It's a challenge, a test of your commanding skills.
Hello.
Perceive it as a freelance commission.
-Freelance? -A tour.
Play your part, since you have the best part here.
You're a talented pro and you always achieve the objectives.
Therefore, I guess this will not be a problem for you.
And from now on
we are the revolutionary Kronstadt sailors.
Let's start what we should have done long ago!
Let's set Russia free!
We kicked the Tsar out. We'll give the boot to Commies as well!
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
Stop here! Stop.
-What's that smell? -Fuel. They are burning the bodies.
Comrade Trotsky.
Do you remember me?
I'm Yakov Agranov. We shot Schastny together, remember?
I'm in the Cheka now.
We have so much to do.
They've still got their associates, their friends, their families.
We have to deal with this scum.
MOSCOW. 1921.
Lenin is doing badly.
Nadezhda says he is weak and faints a lot at work.
He now has a sofa in his office, most of the time he rests on it.
And who is in charge now?
Stalin.
He gained more power while you were away.
Gathered a lot of new people around, promoted them to top positions.
Behaves like some kind of a Turkish vizier.
-Hello, Comrade Trotsky. -Hello.
You can't visit him. The doctors allow him to work only in the mornings.
I won't take long.
We all learn how to adapt, Comrade Trotsky.
And you have to, as well.
I'll come tomorrow.
Tomorrow Lenin will be in Gorki.
Look, come to me at 8 and we will discuss everything.
We could have done it now but unfortunately I'm too busy.
Ebb and flow. The war is over, you did your job.
Now it's our turn.
When I was a child,
back in Simbirsk,
there was a janitor.
He had an idea
that everything bad happened because of the books.
For him they were a kind of instruction
from the devil's world.
He truly believed that people can go blind because of the books.
I was laughing at him back then, but now I'm thinking he was right.
We went blind.
I was always aware of all my actions.
I don't regret anything.
Really?
And I do regret what I did to the Tsar.
He didn't even understand anything.
Didn't get a chance to.
He didn't realize the inevitability of death.
He had to lie to the kids:
to tell them it would be okay.
Same as you. You promised the kids too that it would be okay.
Yes.
You have to keep your enemy in anticipation of death.
Enjoy the fear that will eat him from the inside.
Like Stalin does to you.
I don't care about him. It's not a prison and I'm free.
Don't lie to yourself, Leon.
You're fleeing into the world full of fantasies and ghosts.
It's all because you're scared.
And whatever you say, you do know
that you're alive only because the man with the mustache lets you live.
-Enough. -You're constantly looking
at the people around you, asking yourself:
"Who will betray me and when?"
-Shut up! -And you're screaming inside:
"Faster, Faster! I can't take it anymore!"
I'm not afraid of death.
Everyone is, and so are you.
You're like everyone else. You're neither God nor a prophet.
You're a man of flesh and blood.
And you are scared because you don't know
what's on the other side.
What if you have to answer?
What will you answer them?
And you say you are not scared.
Go. Go out on the street.
End it all right now.
Come on! I'm not afraid of you.
Do you hear me? Hey, where are you?
Se単or, are you okay?
Se単or, what's wrong?
Se単or?
Pablo, call an ambulance! This se単or is sick.
Leon!
Sylvia, call the doctor.