"MOSFILM" "Courier Studio" "presents a Karen Shakhnazarov film" "Kozlov Vladimir, born in '79, August 15th." "How long have you been here?" "It's my fifth year here." "And before that?" "Moscow's boarding home 30." "And before that it was the school for handicapped children." "I got sent there after..." "After my parents abandoned me at five," "I mean they didn't exactly abandon me, they were deprived of the parents' rights and I was given public custody." "I had good teachers, they taught me a lot:" "cooking and sports." " So you can cook?" " Yes." "What can you cook?" "Salads..." "Olivier, Captain's, rissoles and omelette..." "Have you got a dream?" " I have." " What is it?" "I want to leave here, have family, children, work..." "'Cos I'm fed up..." "Twenty-five years of life at public expense because of my parents," "those alkies deprived of their parents' rights..." "They were gone before their time." "They had left me to the mercy of fate." "I was three when they sent me to the orphanage." "My own parents!" "I remember it well." "So I grew... into a hooligan..." "If they had taken care of me when I was a little boy" "I might have become a normal man." "Not the man I am now." "But they gave me up, didn't bring me up so here I am." "Only death can change me." "I have a mother." "Gorelova Nataly." "She lives in Ossipenko Street." "I have never in my life seen her." "She disowned me right after I was born." "She gave me to another..." "I was only two years old." "Have you a dream?" "Sure." "I want a wife..." "I want to find me a girl." "Dream?" "Well, you see, you shouldn't believe dreams." "They never come true." "So I don't have a dream." "There's just one dream," "I want to leave this monastery." "Yes, I was baptized." "But there's no faith to speak of" "can't prove they are up there." "I have faith in myself and my potential." "Good is stronger than evil it is said." "Evil can never overcome good but good can." "I mean it'll triumph." " How good you have faith." " I do and I will." "W A R D No.6" "Based on Anton Chekhov's Story 'Ward No.6'" "Starring" "Dr. Ragin" " Vladimir Ilyin" "Ivan Gromov" " Alexei Vertkov" "Khobotov" " Evgeny Stychkin" "Mikhail Averianovich - Alexander Pankratov" " Cherny" "Nikita" " Victor Solovyov" "Written by Alexander Borodyansky Karen Shakhnazarov" "Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov with the participation of Alexander Gornovsky" "Director of Photography Alexander Kuznetsov" "Artistic Director Ludmila Kusakova" "Music by Evgeny Kadimsky" "Sound by Gulsara Mukataeva" "Edited by Irina Kozhemyakina" "General Producer Karen Shakhnazarov" "Executive Producer Galina Shadur" "ln 1606, at the curve of the Vop river monk Varlaam and the aged nuns" "Evdokia and Ulania built a wooden chapel for St. Nicholas." "After Varlaam's death homeless folk settled here with their leader Biriuk, a fugitive peasant and former highwayman." "Legend has it that seeking forgiveness for his sins, he lived in a cave near the chapel." "And the settlement on the Vop river was named after him:" "Biriukian hermitage." "ln 1630, a brick church was built on the site of the chapel and a monastery founded." "ln 1728, during construction work a reliquary was found with a young girl in expensive garments embroidered in silk and gold." "The inscription on the silver plate attached to the shrine read: 'Auliana, princess of Olshansk." "The maiden died when she was fifteen.'" "After 1917 the monastery accommodated a home for disabled persons who lived there along with the monks." "After 1934 it housed a TB hospital." "ln 1962 it was made into a lunatic asylum." "Schizophrenia is the most widespread psychiatric disease." "The name was suggested by German Doctor Bleiler back in the 17th century." "The Greek 'schizo' means 'to split' and 'phren', is mind." "Incidentally, the borderline between psychotic and normal people is pretty illusory." "It would be correct to say that all of us have mental disorders, in low-intensive form." "How do you diagnose it?" "There are methods galore." "One is smell." "Yes, a schizophrenic has the smell of rancid oil and almond." "Dostoyevsky was an epileptic." "Maupassant was looked upon as eccentric until he - sorry!" " urinated by the front door." "Gogol died of exhaustion." "He refused to take food - a typical symptom." "We here have our genius too." "This way please." "He painted pictures..." "One gentleman who came from Moscow said, 'Your patient is" "a great avant-gardist.'" "Let's see him." "Hello, Nikita." "Igor Yakovlevich." " Are you an artist?" " Yes, I am." " An avant-gardist?" " No, I'm a realist." " They say you're an avant-gardist." " I'm a realist." "What do you know about avant-gardists?" "They are in the forefront." "Where did you learn painting?" "My grandpa was an artist." "He drew Stalin, the 19th party congress." " How did you get here?" " He broke a drugstore window." "Why did you do that?" "There was a human skeleton there." "I'm asking him." " How are you feeling?" " I've recovered, thank you." " How's he now?" " He hears voices." " Do you hear voices?" " Sure." "When you're talking to the doctor, I can hear you well." " You must be tired." "Have a rest." " Too many injections." "Well..." "Who else?" "Here's Alex." " How old are you?" " I'm 43." "You look young for your age." " How are you?" " I'm fine and healthy." "Why are you here then?" "My neighbors irradiate me." "How?" "They have a special device." "But why?" "I dunno." "Perhaps they don't want me alive." "So they are bad, eh?" "I guess so." "Do you like it here?" "Any complaints?" "No, this is a top-level hospital." "My doctor taught me to sit right." "Like this." "Okay, get well, Alex." "And who is this?" "His namesake Pankratov." "Got here in 1997." "Said he had killed John Lennon on orders from Yuri Andropov." " What's with him?" " He hears voices." " You hear voices?" " I do." " You look happy." " The voices are good." " Male or female voices?" " Both male and female." " All of them good." " I see." "Acute schizophrenia." "Here's Ivan." " How are you?" " I'm fine." "This is Ivan Gromov." "Persecution mania..." "My predecessor, Dr. Ragin, believed him to be a prophet..." "How is Ragin now?" "No change." " ls he in your unit?" " Yes." " He's the former chief doctor?" " Yes, he is." "Such things do occur." " Can I talk to him?" " No." "He doesn't talk." "Can I see him?" "Yes, of course, if you like." " Will you show him the way?" " Yes, certainly." "If you have questions I'll be in my office." "Nikita, come with me." "Right." "Here is our Andrei Efimovich." "How are you feeling today?" " Does he ever speak?" " Nope." "He had a stroke." " Did you work with him?" " No, I came here later." " What happened to him?" " I don't know the particulars." "You better ask Khobotov." "He worked with him." "Come on in." "Everybody take his seat." "Did you take your seats, guys?" " Good appetite." " Thanks." "Good appetite, Andrei Efimovich." "You were the chief doctor before Dr. Ragin?" "Right." "I was the chief doctor before Dr. Ragin." "When Dr. Ragin arrived here to replace me the hospital was in a parlous plight." "ln corridors and wards you coudld hardly draw breath for the stink." "The patients complained that roaches, bed-bugs and mice made their lives a misery." "I sold surgical spirit on the sly." "Set up a regular harem among my nurses and women patients." "I hear Ragin, after leaving school, proposed to enter theological college." "But his father, an MD and surgeon, announced categorically he'd disown the boy if he became a cleric." "How true that is I have no idea, but Ragin himself often confessed he never had any vocation for medicine." "Ragin had a small growth on his neck." "He didn't dress like a medical man." "He wore the same suit fourteen years on end, while his new clothes looked just as worn and disheveled on him as the old." "He saw his patients, ate his meals and went visiting all in the same old frock-coat." "And this not out of meanness but because he just didn't care about his appearance." "Dr. Ragin easily diagnosed women's ailments and even attended confinements." "At first" "We were very close." "But not for long." "One day he said to me:" "'Why prevent people from dying if death is the normal and natural end of everyone?" "'" "I came to this town two years ago." "The hospital was a sorry sight but Ragin took those irregularities with indifference." "I didn't approve of it but I didn't introduce improvements lest I offended Ragin." "I considered him an old rogue and secretly envied him." "I would've liked his job." "One day I called on Dr. Ragin on business." "He was out and I went out to look for him." "I was told the chief doctor was in Ward No.6 with the mental patients." "I was the only person in town whose company didn't depress Dr. Ragin." "I'd say entering his quarters:" "'Well, here I am." "Hello there, my good fellow." "You must be tired of me by now, what?" "'" "'Far from it,' the doctor would answer." "And we'd sit down and start the ball rolling." "I sometimes filmed it." "I like to film." "I wanted to be a camera operator once." "I've got a good video camera." "But there's no sound and they can't fix it in this town." "Anyway, it films well..." "The doctor always opened our discussion." "He'd complain that our town totally lacked people who could or would conduct an intelligent conversation." "'Even our intelligentsia doesn't rise above vulgarity.'" "I'd answer: 'You get no sense out of people these days.'" "How healthy, happy and interesting life was in the old days!" "What a brilliant intelligentsia Russia once had:" "what women, what adventures!" "How we drank and ate!" "What frantic liberals we were!" "One day the doctor told me that he met one more person who was fond of discoursing." "I am Gromov Ivan Dmitrievich." "I attended St. Petersburg University, received money from my father and didn't know what hardship was." "My father was prosecuted for forgery and embezzlement and died in the prison hospital." "I had to change my way of life abruptly." "Did coaching for a pittance and still went hungry since I had to send all my earnings to keep my mother." "I couldn't stand the life and gave up the university to come home." "I became a court usher." "One day I came across two convicts escorted by two guards." "It suddenly dawned on me that I myself might be clapped in irons and hauled off to prison." "On my way home I met the police inspector I knew who gave me good day and walked a few steps down the street with me." "This struck me as suspicious." "I had done nothing wrong." "But was it difficult to commit a crime accidentally?" "Could false accusations and judicial miscarriages really be ruled out?" "A fat hope, then, of finding justice and protection in this filthy little town a hundred and twenty miles from the railway!" "ln spring two corpses were found in a gully near the cemetery:" "an old woman and a boy bearing signs of death by violence." "These corpses and the murderer became the talk of the town." "To show that I wasn't the killer" "I'd walk the streets smiling." "I dashed down the street." "I thought all the violence on earth was behind my back and was pursuing me." "I was caught and taken home." "A doctor was sent for." "Dr. Ragin prescribed laurel-water drops and told the neighbor he wouldn't come again" "because he couldn't stop a man taking leave of his senses." "I asked him to release me." "'What would you gain if I did release you?" "' he answered." "'Go, go...'" "You might as well give Moses felt boots or something, or else he'll catch cold." "Very good." "I'll notify the laundry keeper." "Please, ask her in my name, will you?" "Tell her I said so." "The doctor's here!" "Congratulations, gentlemen!" "The doc honors us with his presence!" "You bloody rat!" "Kill the vermin!" "Drown him in the latrine!" " What for?" " What for?" "Thief!" "Charlatan!" "Butcher!" "Calm yourself, please." "What are you so angry about?" "Why do you hold me here?" "Because you are ill." "But there are dozens, hundreds of madmen at large." "So why should I - and these wretches - be cooped up here?" "The hospital riff-raff are immeasurably lower on the moral scale than any of us." "So why are we shut up?" "Why not you?" "Where's the logic of it?" "Morality and logic are neither here nor there." "It's all due to chance." "Whoever has been put in here stays put, and whoever hasn't, runs about outside." "There's no morality or logic about my being a doctor and your being a mental patient, it's sheer blind chance." "That gibberish means nothing to me." " Let me out of here." " I can't." " Why not?" " It's not in my power." "What would you gain if I did release you?" "Go." "If you went off... they'd pick you up and bring you back." "Yes, yes..." "Quite true." "It's awful." "But what am I to do?" "You ask me what to do?" "The best thing in your position would be to run away." "But that's no use..." "as you'd only be picked up." "Society's all powerful when it protects itself from criminals, mental patients and other awkward customers." "There's only one thing you can do:" "accept the idea that you're a fixture here." "But what use is it to anyone?" "Since there are prisons and lunatic asylums someone must be shut up in them, mustn't they?" "If not you, then I, if not I, then someone else." "Just wait until prisons and asylums cease to exist in the distant future," "then there won't be bars on the windows or hospital smocks." "Sooner or later that time will come." "You're joking." "You and your minion Nikita have no concern with the future," "you haven't." "But better times are on the way!" "I may sound banal, you may laugh at me, but a new life will dawn!" "Justice shall triumph!" "I shan't see it, I'll be dead, but someone's great-grandchildren will live to see it." "I greet'em with all my heart." "March forward and God be with you!" "From behind these bars I bless you." "I rejoice!" "I see no special cause for rejoicing." "There will be no prisons or asylums and justice shall indeed prevail as you say." "But the real essence of things won't change." "The laws of nature will stay as they are." "People are going to fall ill, grow old and die, just as they do now." "And gloriously as your dawn may irradiate your life, you'll still end up" "nailed in your coffin and thrown in a pit." "But what about immortality?" "Oh, really!" "You may not believe in it... but I do." "Someone in Dostoyevsky or Voltaire says that if God didn't exist man would have invented Him." "I believe that if there's no such thing as immortality, human genius will sooner or later invent it." "Well said." "I'm glad you're a believer." "With such faith one could live even immured inside a wall." "You're a thinking, thoughtful man." "You can find consolation inside yourself in any surroundings." "Diogenes lived in a barrel, but was happier than all the emperors of this world." "Your Diogenes was an ass." "Why all this stuff about Diogenes?" "I love life passionately!" "I have persecution mania," "I suffer constant, agonizing fear but... there are moments when such a lust for life comes over me that I fear my brain will burst." "I've a tremendous appetite for life, tremendous!" "ln my day-dreams I see visions, people sort of haunt me," "I hear voices and music," "I seem to be walking through a forest or along a beach." "And I do so long for the hum and bustle of life." "Tell me now, what's the news?" "ln town or in general?" "Oh, tell me about the town first." "All right." "The town is an abysmal bore, what with no one to talk to." "No new faces." "Actually, though, a young doctor turned up recently," "Khobotov." "What's he like then, pretty crude?" "Well, he's not exactly cultured." "It's odd, you know." "There's no mental stagnation in the capital, so they must have some pretty impressive people around." "But why do they always send us people of whom the less said the better." " Unfortunate town!" " Yes, unfortunate indeed." "What's the matter?" "Not one more word will you hear from me." "Leave me alone..." "What do you want?" "Leave me alone..." "One day I asked the doctor if he believed in immortality." "'No, my dear Mikhail, I do not, nor have I any grounds for so believing,' he answered." "I admit I have my doubts too." "Actually, though, I do sort of feel" "I'll never die." "Dear me, thinks I to myself, it's time you were dead, but a little voice inside me says no, you aren't going to die." "I had known Dr. Ragin for 20 years," "I lived next door." "He lived alone and I helped him about the house." "He would rise at about 8 a.m." "have tea and go to the hospital." "He'd come back at 2 p.m., sit down in his study and start reading." "He read a lot." "His preference was for historical and philosophical works." "He spent half his salary on books." "He bought a lot..." "He kept a carafe of vodka near his book, while a salted gherkin lay on the table." "Every half hour he poured himself a glass of vodka," "drank it, then groped for the gherkin." "At four o'clock he cautiously approached the kitchen and said," "'How about a spot to eat?" "'" "After lunch he paced his quarters, his arms folded on his chest." "He was thinking." "At five I'd say," "'Isn't it time for your beer, Doctor?" "'" "'No, not yet." "I'll just, er, wait a little.'" "Towards evening the postmaster would arrive."" ""Quite often I didn't find him in." "This had never happened before." "His maid, Daria, was embarrassed to see the doctor being late for lunch." "H started coming later and later." "A rumor swept the town:" "the doctor began to pay visits to Ward No.6." "It wasn't clear why he'd stay there for hours on end and what they talked about..." "My name is Nikita," "I've worked here as orderly for 20 years." "Once while in the lobby, I heard Dr. Ragin's voice in Ward No.6." "I peeped into it." "The doctor and Gromov sat on the bed." "The madman was grimacing, the doctor sat still." "His face was sad." "On the next day" "I went there with Dr. Khobotov." "We were eavesdropping." "Khobotov said, grinning," "'Our old man must have lost his wits." "I've been long expecting it.' That's what he said." "What month is it now, October?" "Yes, it's the end of October." " ls it muddy outside?" " No, not very." "I'd like to go somewhere out of town, then come home to a warm, comfortable study where some proper doctor would cure my headache." "It's ages since I lived like a human being." "There's no difference between a warm, comfortable study and this ward." " Meaning what?" " Man finds peace... and contentment within him, not in the world outside." "Go and preach that philosophy in Greece, it doesn't fit our climate." "Who was I discussing Diogenes with - not you, was it?" "Yes." "Diogenes needed no study or warm building," "It was warm there." "He could just lie in his barrel munching oranges." "If he had to live in Russia, he'd be begging to be allowed indoors in May." "He'd be doubled up with cold." "No." "One can ignore cold, just like any other pain." "A thinking individual..." "It's this contempt for suffering which distinguishes him." "He's always content and nothing ever surprises him." "I must be an idiot then, since I suffer, I'm discontented and surprised at human depravity." "Don't say that." "If you meditate more you'll appreciate the insignificance of all those externals that so excite us." "One must seek the meaning of life, therein lies true happiness." "Meaning of life..." "What grounds have you for preaching?" "Have you ever suffered?" "Were you beaten as a child?" "No, my parents abhorred corporal punishment." "Well, my father beat me cruelly..." "But let's go on about you." "No one ever laid a finger on you in your life, nor frightened or hit you." "You grew up under you dad's wing, you studied at his expense, you picked up a soft job straight away." "Being lazy and spineless by nature, you tried to arrange things so that nothing bothered you." "You delegated your job to your assistant while you sat in the warmth and quiet, reading books, indulging yourself in speculations in the sphere of higher nonsense and by hitting the bottle." "You've never seen life, you know nothing about it." "You're conversant with reality only in theory." "It's the philosophy best suited to a typical lackadaisical Russian." "Say you see a peasant beating his wife." "Why meddle?" "Let him beat away, they're gonna die anyway sooner or later." "Besides, that peasant is degrading himself with his blows." "Getting drunk is stupid, it's not respectable, but you die if you drink and you die if you don't." "A peasant woman comes along with toothache." "Pain is just the impression of feeling pain, besides, no one can get through life without sickness." "So let that woman clear out and leave me my meditations and vodka." "It's a convenient philosophy." "You don't have to do anything, your conscience is clear and you think yourself a sage." "You may despise suffering but you catch your finger in the door and I bet you'll scream your head off." " Or perhaps not." " You damn well would!" "And suppose you became paralysed." "Or some crass upstart insulted you in public." "That would teach you to tell people to seek the meaning of existence and find true bliss." "That is highly original." "Your bent for generalizations impresses me most agreeably," "while your character-sketch of me... quite brilliant, sir!" "I enjoy talking to you hugely I do confess." "I advised my friend to give up vodka and beer." "But as a man of tact I didn't come straight out, I hinted at it." "I spoke of some battalion CO ('grand chap') who had taken to drink and fallen ill," "but completely recovered after going on the wagon." "Dr. Khobotov also advised him to give up spirits and recommended him to take... er... potassium bromide." "ln November Dr. Ragin was summoned by his superiors." "You've quite forgotten us, Doctor." "But then you're a bit of a monk - don't play cards, don't like women." "You're bored with the likes of us." "Living in this town..." "Oh, what a bore!" "No theatre, no music." "It's a pity our townsfolk squander their vital energies, their hearts and minds" "on cards and gossip..." "They won't find time for interesting conversation and reading." "What is today's date, Dr. Ragin?" "November 29th." "And year?" "2007." "How many days are there in the year?" "365." "ls it true that Ward No.6 houses a remarkable prophet?" "Yes, it's a patient but an interesting young fellow." "We're getting old, Doctor..." "You need rest." "Why don't you take a month's leave and go some place." "Say, to Antalia." "Last year I was so pooped." "I spent a month in Antalia and became myself again." "I would like to tender my resignation." "I called on him that evening." "The doctors kept the truth from him but I gave it to him straight from the shoulder, soldier like." "I told him he was not well, everyone had noticed it some time ago." "I asked him to come with me as he needed a change of scene." "Ragin said he felt completely well and couldn't go with me" "but then asked where I was thinking of going." "I said Moscow." "I had spent the five happiest years of my life in Moscow." "ln Moscow I first took my friend to see the Iverian church." "I prayed fervently bowing to the ground and weeping." "I said to Andrei later:" "'Even if you aren't a believer, you feel easier after a spot of prayer.'" "Embarrassed, Ragin kissed the icon." "Then we went to the Kremlin." "We saw the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell, even touching them." "We visited St. Saviour's Cathedral." "Ragin didn't like Moscow as it was teeming with crooks." "And those traffic jams!" "I said that Moscow was a staggering city." "I had spent the five happiest years of my life there." "Ragin said: 'You go by yourself and let me go home!" "'" "He stayed in his hotel room and lay on the sofa, furious." "ln Moscow I lost all my money gambling." "I borrowed 20,000 rubles from Ragin and still haven's paid it back." "He doesn't need it, at this time." "We returned home in December." "Dr. Ragin was quite ill." "I felt obliged to visit and entertain him." "He said once that sooner or later we were all bound to die" "and vanish without a trace." "If one imagined a ghost flashing past the earth in a million years' time," "it would see nothing but clay and naked crags." "Culture, moral laws..." "It will all disappear, it won't even have burdocks growing on it." "He also said he pictured the globe in a million years' time:" "jack-booted Khobotov popping up behind a naked crag." "The doctor twice went to talk to Gromov in Ward No.6" "but Gromov asked to be left in peace and required of these damn blackguards" "but one recompense:" "solitary confinement." "As the doctor was taking farewell," "Gromov snarled and told him to go to hell." "Dr. Khobotov and Mikhail came after lunch." "Dr. Ragin lay on the sofa." "Dr. Khobotov said," "'It's high time you were on the mend.'" "Mikhail guffawed" "and said, 'The doctor is on the mend all right and will live another hundred years." "And we'll be off to the Caucasus next summer and ride all over it on horseback." "Back home it'll be wedding bells for the doctor." "We'll marry you off.'" "Dr. Ragin rose to his feet and said: 'That's pretty cheap!" "'" "He clenched his fists lifting them above his head and shouted:" "'Clear out of here!" "Both of you, clear out!" "'" "Mikhail and Khobotov stood up and stared at him." "Ragin kept shouting:" "'I don't need your friendship, you oaf, or your medicines!" "'" "And hurled the phial after them." "The two backed toward the door and the doctor bellowed:" "'Go to hell!" "To blazes with you!" "'" "He lay on the sofa trembling as if with a fever and kept repeating:" "'Imbeciles!" "Half-wits!" "'" "Mikhail," "I apologize for yesterday." "We'll forget the whole thing." "Yesterday's attack alarmed the doctor and myself." "Why won't you take your health seriously, old man?" "You can't go on like this." "Excuse an old friend's bluntness..." "But you live under most unsuitable conditions:" "dirty, with no one to nurse you and no money for treatment." "The doctor and I do beg you earnestly to heed our advice and go to hospital." "You'll be properly fed and nursed and receive treatment there." "Khobotov may be a bit uncouth, just between ourselves," "Still he does know his stuff and he's completely reliable." "He has promised to attend to you." "Don't believe a word of it!" "It's all a trick." "There's only one thing wrong with me: it has taken me 20 years to find one intelligent man in town and he is insane." "I'm not ill at all." "I'm just trapped in a vicious circle from which there is no way out." "Go to the hospital, my dear fellow." "It could be a grave for all I care." "Promise me you'll do everything Dr. Khobotov says." "I promise." "But I repeat I'm caught up in a vicious circle." "Everything, even my friends' sincere sympathy, tends the same way now:" "to my ruin." "You'll get better." "Why talk like that?" "Most people go through it at the end of their lives." "When you are told you have something like bad kidneys you take treatment... or else when you're called a lunatic or a criminal," "then you can be sure you're trapped in a vicious circle from which you'll never escape." "The more you try to get away the more you're cuaght up." "You may as well give in because no human effort will save you now." "Late that afternoon" "I unexpectedly presented myself to Dr. Ragin and said in a tone which seemed to dismiss the previous day's happenings." "'I have some business with you, dear colleague." "Now how about coming along to a little consultation?" "'" "Dr. Ragin put his hat and coat on and we went into the street." "'And where is your patient?" "' he asked." "I said he's in the hospital and I'd been wanting to show him to him for a long time:" "a most fascinating case." "Entering the hospital yard, we skirted the main block on the way to the hut" "where the lunatics were housed..." "All this in silence." "As we entered the hut" "Nikita jumped up as usual and stood to attention." "'One of them has a lung complication,'" "I said in an undertone entering Ward No.6 with Dr. Ragin." "Now, you wait here, I'll be back in a moment." "I'll just fetch my stethoscope." "And I left..." "One of them has a lung complication." "Now, wait here, I'll be back in a moment." "I'll just fetch my stethoscope." "Andreï Efimovitch!" "..." "Kindly put this on." "Now, here's your bed, come this way." "It's all right..." "You'll get better, God willing." "This is some misunderstanding." "It must be cleared up!" "Aha!" "So they've shoved you in here too, old man!" "Welcome indeed!" "So far you've been the vampire, now it's your turn." " An excellent idea!" " It's some misunderstanding." "Some misunderstanding." "Oh, blast this life!" "The really galling, wounding thing is that it won't end with any recompense for suffering or operatic apotheosis." "It will end in death." "Some guys will come and drag one's corpse into a cellar by its hands and feet." "Oh, well, we'll have fun in the next world." "I'll come back here and haunt these rats." "I'll scare them!" "I'll turn their hair white!" "I'm feeling a little low..." " How 'bout a spot of philosophy?" " Oh, God..." "You once remarked there's no Russian philosophy, but all Russians, nonentities included, are philosophers." "But the philosophic theorizings of nonentities don't do any harm." "So why laugh at my misfortunes, dear friend?" "And why shouldn't nonentities philosophize if they are dissatisfied?" "An intelligent, proud, freedom-loving man... his only outlet is to work in a dirty little town, surrounded by cupping-glasses, leeches and mustard plasters..." "How bogus, how parochial, how cheap his life!" "Stuff and nonsense!" "If you hated doctoring you should have been a minister." "There's nothing one can be." "We're so feeble!" "I used to be detached and argue confidently and sensibly," "but it only took a bit of rough handling to make me lose heart and cave in." "We're a rotten, feeble lot!" "You are the same." "You're intelligent, you have integrity." "But barely were you launched on life before you tired and sickened." "You're feeble, I tell you." "I'm just going out." "I'll tell them to bring us a light." "I can't manage like this." "Can't cope." "Nikita!" "And where are you off to?" "None of that, now." "It's bed-time." "I only want a turn in the yard for a minute." "None of that, now." "It isn't allowed, you know that." "But what does it matter if I go out for a bit?" "I don't understand." "I must go out!" "I've got to." "Don't you give me no trouble." "We can't have that." "What the hell is going on?" "What right has he to stop you?" "How dare they keep us here?" "No one may be deprived of liberty without a court order!" " It's an outrage!" "Sheer tyranny!" " Of course it is." "I must go out..." "I've got to..." "Let me out of here, I tell you!" "Do you hear me, you stupid bastard?" "Open up!" " Bloody savage!" " Nikita!" "On the next day Ragin neither ate nor drank but lay still and silent." "Khobotov visited and asked questions." "Dr. Ragin didn't answer." "Mikhail brought him tea and jam." "His maid came too and stood by his bed for a whole hour." "Late that afternoon Dr. Ragin had a stroke." "He opened his eyes and said:" "'Most people believe in immortality." "Now, is there really such a thing?" "'" "He twitched and plunged into eternal oblivion." "The orderlies came, seized his hands and feet and hauled him off." "That's it." "Dr. Ragin had a stroke or cerebral effusion." "It's an acute impairment of cerebral circulation when the brain tissue is affected and its functions are disturbed." "I presume Dr. Ragin's first sensation was of devastating feverish chill and nausea." "A green light flashed in his eyes." "I guess that being a doctor he knew his end was near." "I mean, he didn't die but..." "Some time ago I brought a dictaphone to Dr. Ragin's home" "and turned it on just for fun." "Fate landed us in a dump." "The most maddening thing is we'll die here." "That's me." "Life is a deplorable trap." "...Against his will, by certain chance factors man..." "And this is Dr. Ragin." "He wants to learn the meaning of existence - he's fobbed off with absurdities." "He knocks but no one opens." "Death approaches and he hasn't asked for it." "The past is odious and better forgotten, and the same is true of the present." "I'm serving a bad cause, I'm dishonest." "But I'm nothing in myself." "I'm only part of an inevitable social evil." "Officials are up to no good, they get paid for doing nothing." "So it's not my fault I'm dishonest, it's the fault of the age." "If I had been born 200 years later I'd have been different." "l" "Well, the rest isn't him..." "Now, I wish you a happy New Year and the best of everything." "And health." "And now the presents." "Come and get them." " Here..." " Thank you." " For you and him..." " Thank you." " Did everyone get something?" " Yes..." " Go on in, girls." " Happy New Year, Merry Christmas." "The same to you." "Thanks." " Speedy recovery." " The same to you." "You'll celebrate with Unit Two." "Move, move..." " I'm off." "Will you hang around?" " Of course." "Now dance, everybody." "I am Dr. Ragin's neighbor," "Belova." "I've got two children." "No husband..." "My lover sometimes stayed" "the night..." "Always drunk, he'd install himself in the kitchen terrifying everybody... clamoring for vodka." "My kids were terrified" "and cried..." "The doctor would take them into his room and lay them to rest," "which gave him great pleasure." " Remember uncle Andrei?" " Yes." "What kind of person was he?" "He was nice." "We loved him dearly." "That's it..." "Translated by Raisa Svirina"