"One, two, three..." "TV channel Russia in cooperation with VERA movie company and the Federal Agency for Culture and cinematography present" "A Gleb Panfilov TV series" "THE FIRST CIRCLE" "Based on Alexander Solzhenitsyin's epic novel" "A VERA movie company production" "Screenplay Alexander Solzhenitsyn" "Director Gleb Panfilov" "Producers-in-chief Anton Zlatopolsky and Maxim Panfilov" "Producers Sergei Shumakov and Marina Osmolovskaya" "Camera Mikhail Agranovich" "Set design Anatoly Panfilov and Konstantion Zoubrylin" "Music Vadim Beebergan Sound Yury Motorkin" "Starring" "Yevgeny Mironov as Gleb Nerzhin" "Dmitry Pyevtsov as Innokenty Volodin Olga Drozdova as his wife Datnara" "Igor Kvasha as Stalin Roman Madyanov as Abakoumov" "Andrei Smironov as Bobynin Oleg Kharitonov as Russka" "Voiceover narration Alexander Solzhenitsyn" "Action time December 24-27, 1949." "Episode Two" "Why are you sitting down without asking a permission?" "You see, there is a Chinese proverb saying that standing is better than walking and sitting is better than standing, but laying down is the best option of all them." "Do you understand who I really am?" "Who are you?" "Are you Marshal Goering?" "Who?" " Marshal Goering." "Once he visited an aircraft plant at Galle where I used to work as an engineer." "The local top brass were tiptoeing around him." "But he was of little interest for me." "He came to our room, walked around for some time watching us and left for the adjoining room." "Don't you see any difference between us two?" "Between you and Goering?" "Or between you and me?" "I can perfectly see the difference between you and me." "You need me." "And I don't need you." "Listen, prisoner..." "If i speak softly to you, this is no reason for you to cut the distance." "If you had spoken harshly to me," "I wouldn't have spoken to you at all, citizen minister." "You'd better yell at your lackeys, your generals and colonels." "They still have something..." "They have something to lose in this life." "I'll do what I wish to." "And we'll make you do what we need." "You're mistaken, citizen minister." "I don't have anything of my own now." "You won't even grasp the full meaning of that." "You won't be able to get to my wife and my kid." "They were killed in an air raid." "My parents are long dead." "The only property I possess in this world is this handkerchief." "My overall and the linen underneath belong to the state." "You took my freedom away very long ago." "And you don't have the power to grant me this freedom again as you aren't free either." "I'm pretty old." "They hurled upon me a 25-year sentence." "I've already gone through the strict labor camps." "I know what a solitary cell or a top seventy confinement with dog escorts means." "What else can you frighten me with?" "Would you deprive me of my engineering job?" "You'll lose more on that than I will." "May I have a smoke?" "Have a pick." "Thanks." "But I'm loyal to my brand." "Other brands make me cough." "In fact." "I wish you could understand and be able to explain to the people at the top that your authority may remain strong until you strip a man of everything." "Those who have nothing to lose are beyond your authority." "They become free people again." "Engineer Bobynin, you are the leading engineer in the clipped speech device project." "Yes, I am." "I'd like you to tell me exactly when the device will become fully operational." "That's a question!" "Weren't my superiors able to answer it?" "I want to get this information from you." "Will it be ready by February?" "February?" "Are you kidding?" "Well, if it is needed for a report, a rough-and-ready version might arrive in probably six months." "But if you need unbreakable encryption, I really have no idea." "It might take a year." "I don't know." "Alexander Ivanovich," "I'd like you to give it a second thought and tell me what can be done to speed up the process." "It is impossible to gear it up." "Why?" "Give me your line of reasoning." "Who is to blame for that?" "Don't be afraid to give it to me straight." "Tell me the culprits whatever rank they might be in." "My word will be enough to get them demoted and discharged." "Do you understand that the entire process extends to two or even three years?" "And you were given a year to finish it." "What does that deadline mean?" "Do you have any idea of the subject you're talking about?" "Do you believe in magic spells that could build you a castle by the next morning?" "What if the problem was incorrectly defined?" "What if new side effects were registered in the process?" "And what about the people?" "You need free men with full bellies and minds at ease." "And there must be no atmosphere of total suspicion." "Look, we shifted a little lathe from one place to another, its base got splintered." "I don't know what caused this crack." "In fact, any welder could fix it in an hour." "And our security officer Major Shikin used the event with this shitty lathe that was really ancient, had no engine installed and was driven by the outside belt, to fuel a fierce search for saboteurs." "He's been pulling out the people for interrogations and we all think more about his choice for yet another prison sentence for sabotage." "That's one parasite, the security officer at the work place, then there is the other parasite, the security officer in the prison block, making nervous wrecks of us with his conduct reports and dirty tricks." "What the hell do you expect all these security operations to produce?" "Everybody says we're making a secret telephone for Stalin." "Stalin personally is putting the pressure on, and even for an assignment like this you can't either we haven't got the condensers we need, or the radio valves are the wrong kind." "or there aren't enough electronic oscillographs." "We're paupers!" "It's a disgrace." "Do you ever spare the men a thought?" "We all work twelve hours a day for you, some of us sixteen." "and you give meat only to the senior engineers and bare bones to the rest." "Why don't you let the 58-ers see their families?" "It's supposed to be once a month, and you allow it once a year." "Do you think that helps to keep morale up?" "Regulations!" "You've got regulations on the brain." "You'll drive yourselves mad with regulations." "At one time Sunday was our day off." "Now it's forbidden." "Why?" "To make us work harder?" "Are you trying to skim cream off shit?" "It's not going to speed things up if we suffocate for want of a breath of air." "Why did you send for me in the middle of the night?" "Isn't the day long enough?" "I have work to do tomorrow." "I need sleep." "I really apologize for such a late meeting." "You may go." "Wait a minute." "You've left some of your property here." "Thanks." "Close the door." "I'm leaving for Kuntsevo." "And you summon here these three jerks." "I mean Selivanovsky, Oskoloupov and" "Yakonov again." "Make them wait for me even if I come back at lunchtime." "When I come back." "I'll get down to tearing their balls away." "Yes, sir." "Why aren't you sleeping?" "Do you want to get back to the university?" "They say that history goes in circles." "I'm sick of everything." "Books and theories included." "History is so monotonous that it makes you sick to read it." "Suppose I'd graduated." "Say I had become a scholar." "Say I'd written a fat book." "What sort of idiot would want to read it all?" "Steady now." "We can doubt, we must doubt." "But we must have something to love, mustn't we?" "To love!" "But not history, not theory!" "A girl!" "What is the most important thing they've deprived us of?" "The right to attend meetings?" "Politics classes?" "The right to subscribe to State Loans?" "The one and only thing that the Big Chief could do to hurt us was to deprive us of women!" "So that's what he has done." "For twenty-five years!" "Get it out of your head!" "Switch your energy to other matters!" "A girl!" "Everybody needs a girl!" "To hold her in your arms." "Do you have a girl?" "Yes, I almost do." "Who is she?" "Klara!" "Klara?" "Do you mean the daughter of our prosecutor?" "Yes." " Well, man, you're doing it great." "Here you are at last." " I'm sorry." "Well, come on in." "We've been waiting for you for ages." "I'm glad to see you." " Me too." "Datnara, your husband has come." "Hello." "Where is your decorative marine knife?" "Back home." "You've forgotten about it." " No." "What might I need it for here?" "But I've asked you to arrive here fully decorated." "But not that much." "Wow, whose voice am I hearing?" "Mom, he's come without his decorative knife." "Does it matter?" "Hello, my handsome one." "Are you hungry?" "I'm not hungry." "But I'm not wearing any knife." "Who cares?" "Let's go in." "I'll serve you some food and drinks, dear." "Welcome to the table, dear." "Let's drink for Motherland, Let's drink for Stalin." "Let's drink for all that over and over again." "Hooray to Comrade Stalin." "Hooray!" "Hooray!" "Hooray!" "Help yourselves to the table, dear guests." "Have a look at this baked piglet." "It is right from the oven." "Everything is perfect." "But these folks hasn't yet entertained me with any grandchildren." "Who are you referring to?" " Datnara and Innokenty." "I don't understand what they are waiting for." "They are..." "They seem to be birds of a feather." "They seem to be living for themselves and not caring about anything else." "And travelling abroad all the time." "Looks like a nice setup for these life blowers." "Ask this son of a bitch whether he is a genuine fan of Epicurus." "What's this, Petya?" "Are you you're a follower of Epicurus, Innokenty?" "Epicurus?" " Yes." "Yes." "I am." "And I've never told you otherwise." "Does it interfere with your being a Marxist?" "Nothing can interfere with a true Marxist." "I might surprise you all, but the word "epicurean" belongs to a number of notions that are generally misunderstood." "This notion is usually attributed to the people who are to greedy for pleasures of this life or too sensuous or simply are swines." "But the teaching of Epicurus is quite contrary to the popular wisdom." "Will you expand?" "Epicurus names insatiable human passions as one of the three evils interfering with the proper course of life." "He said that a man needed very little." "That's how human personal happiness might be detached from human fate." "That's how a man can save or protect himself by killing his fear of strikes of evil fortune." "That's why Epicurus is a great optimist." "Epicurus is a great optimist." "Wait!" "You're wrong." "Pour another one to him or they'll start arguing too fiercely." "Innokenty, you haven't raised a toast to my award." "Just look at that!" "What a beautiful sight!" "I'd like to raise a toast to that." "My feelings can't be expressed in words, but in interjections only." "I wish you a lot of health." "And accept my congratulations." "Thanks." " Congratulations!" "Thanks for your kind words." "This liquor is very strong." "Good evening, Comrade Stalin!" "May I come in?" "It is you, Abakoumov." "Come in." "Comrade Stalin, may I make my report?" "Everything is ready for Tito." "When he's off to the Brioni island, his yacht will be loaded." "What about Rankovich?" "Yes, Comrade Stalin." "Rankovich, Kardel, Moshe Piyade... the whole gang will be blown sky-high, together!" "Take a seat." " Oh, yes." "Did you arrest the traitors?" " Yes, we did." "We've disclosed a subversive group in the Frunze Academy." "They all will be arrested." "And we've found some people in the Ecclesiastical Academy." "Are you serious?" " Yes I'm." "Was there a subversive nest there too?" "Yes, there was." "Listen, what are you currently doing about the security of the Party ranks?" "Comrade Stalin," "All of our ministries and departments exist for the purpose of ensuring your safe and quit work." "So that you could think about the course for the entire country." "There is hardly a day without me checking everything and arresting someone." "I'm always keeping my eye on current affairs." "So the terrorism business is getting along, isn't it?" "Is there any end in sight for all that?" "I wish I could report to you, there hadn't been any terrorism cases lately." "But they still exist." "We've been defusing the enemy nests in the most unexpected places." "That's good." "It means that you're working." "It is noteworthy." "Comrade Stalin, that we don't let all these plots ripen to the full readiness state." "We nip them in the bud at the conceptual stage." "These intentions are qualified as crimes through Paragraph 19." "That's good." "Do you think that there still are some malcontents around?" "Yes, there is some percentage." "You're right in saying so." "It means you're apt for working in the state security." "There are some people who keep telling me that there are no malcontents." "They say that everyone who votes for us in the elections is content with life." "This is political blindness." "Remain seated." "But it is not so." "People might give their votes for us, and still be displeased." "There are from 5 to 8 per cent of the dissenters in the population." "Right." "From 5 to 7 per cent." "But this is my fault, Comrade Stalin." "I don't have the time for complacency." "What about the mood among the younger ones?" "We must give more care to the younger generation." "But youthful vices must be treated with much less patience." "I got it, Comrade Stalin." "We'll handle all this." "And we must put more effort into the surveillance over the attitudes of the students." "And listen, it is high time you employ the full authority that the laws grant upon you." "25 years in the camps instead of 10." "10 years..." "Sounds more like some high school, and not prison." "10 years are good for punishing school kids." "But adult men growing moustache must get 25-year sentences." "They are still young." "They can handle this." "I got it, Comrade Stalin." "We'll do it as well." "And it is time we stop preserving spa conditions in our political prisons." "Beria told me once that there still exists the practice of accepting food parcels in political prisons." "We'll stop the practice and ban these things, Comrade Stalin." "I've really overlooked that." "I'm sorry." "How many times do I have to tell you?" "When will you grasp it at last?" "We understand all that." "The class struggle is going to intensify." "Comrade Stalin, would you mind helping me?" "We're severely restricted in our work by this ban on capital punishment." "We've been beating the bush for 30 months in a row." "We can't reflect the executed criminals in our records." "This we have to issue two copies of the same flat." "We can't pay the executors directly through the accounting office." "The entire accounting system becomes a quagmire." "And we have nothing to counter the prisoners in the camps with." "We need capital punishment back so much." "Would you mind returning it back?" "I know all that." "I'll return capital punishment back into the code pretty soon." "It would be a good educational measure for everyone." "Thanks a lot, Comrade Stalin." "Aren't you afraid of being the first man to be shot after that?" "Comrade Stalin, if I deserve it, if it is necessary, do it." "These are very good words." "We'll shoot you when you deserve it." "It will only be fair, Comrade Stalin, thanks." "Never mind." "Be seated." "You'll have a lot of work pretty soon, Abakoumov." "We'll undertake another purge like we did in 1937." "The whole world is against us." "Can you imagine that?" "The whole world." "The all-out war is inevitable." "It has been inevitable since 1944." "And a great war must be preceeded by a great purge." "Comrade Stalin, aren't we purging the country now?" "Are you calling this a purge?" "You're still to see a real purge ahead." "And as we start the war and advance to Europe, we'll start cleansing the continent." "Make the state security stronger, Abakoumov." "Strengthen the state security bodies with more personnel and better wages." "I won't refuse any of your demands." "Thanks, Comrade Stalin." "Ok, then." "You may leave." "Yes, sir." "Wait!" "What about the secret telephone?" "Have you forgotten about it?" "You're right, Comrade Stalin." "The exhilaration made me forget the issue." "Here is my report." "Two secret telephones will be ready by the time you've ordered them to." "It will be May 1st of the coming year." "Aren't you lying to me?" " No, I'm not lying." "Let me give you a cross for that." "What's up, Abakoumov?" "Do you believe in God?" " No, Comrade Stalin." "Why do you cross then?" "I don't know, Comrade Stalin." "I'm sorry." "It has just happened that way." "OK, I understand that." "It is an atavistic feature." "I forgive you for that." "Have you told me everything?" "Haven't you forgotten anything?" "I didn't want to disappoint you, but..." "Go ahead." "I wanted to catch the bastard first and to report to you later, but..." "Don't be afraid to tell me the truth." "Speak up." "This afternoon, at about 17.00, some scoundrel made a phone call to the US Embassy from a public booth and passed to them..." "What?" "The information on our US agent getting some highly classified American data on the A-bomb." "Who is this Judas?" "We're looking for him everywhere." "He seems to be a Foreign Ministry diplomat." "We've already assigned the secret telephony lab to identify him." "He'll be found and face the firing squad." "A firing squad is not enough!" "Then he'll go to the gallows." " The gallows aren't enough either!" "Put him on a frying pan and bake him alive!" "Make him wiggle like a viper in the hellfire!" "Judas!" "What a traitor!" "Judas!" "Traitor!" "Judas!" "What a traitor!" "Judas!" "Here it is." "You're living a good life, Petya!" "Your senior son-in-law is a three-time Stalin prize winner." "Yes." "The younger one will make a good career as well." "He'll be an ambassador one day." "Wait and see." "We're doing our best." " It is time to leave then." "Vanya, we're looking forward to seeing you again." "And you're always late." "Say goodbye now." " Thanks." "Happy New Year!" "Let me see you off." "See you later." " You're always welcome." "Thanks." "Bye." "Where are you going, daddy?" " I'll see him to the elevator." "He nearly killed me." "If I had stood closer, you'd have lost your mom." "Hey, why haven't I seen at the "1919" opening night?" "I was there yesterday." " Really?" "How did you like the play?" "It was fantastic." " Really." "Do you have a different opinion of it?" "Are you kidding?" "And how did you like "The Alien Bride" in the Moscow Art Theater?" "This was really a work of genius." "Thanks, dear." "Did you like it?" " In my mind, it was horrible." "I'll go and have some champaigne." "The champaigne has been served, friends." "Do you want some champaigne?" " Have a treat." "Selivanovsky, I'll demote you to the rank of a lieutenant." "You'll go right to Oi-Myakon." "You'll get right to the Pole of Cold where even bears feel cold." "I could have expected it from anyone but you, Foma." "You gave me such a direct look into the eyes." "You were lying to me when you told me that it would be ready." "Major General, do you secretly dream of a common Boutyrka prison guard job?" "Do you want to get back to your starting point?" "I'll do it!" "And as to you, Yakonov..." "You had a sentence for sabotage." "I'll arrest you right now and send to Marfino as a prisoner." "You'll fix this device with your own hands." "Bastards!" "Liars!" "Scumbags!" "Now listen!" "If you, as you promised, don't deliver two devices by February 1, you'll be the first one to face the firing squad, Yakonov." "Then your turn will come, Selivanovsky." "Oskoloupov, you'll be quick to follow them." "Now get back to work!" "And report to me daily!" "Report in person!" " Yes, sir." "Get outta here!" "Capital punishment is just a must now." "Just a must!" "I'm sorry." "I got mistaken." "The black abyss of the prison past was opening up right under his feet again luring him back in." "These six years that he had passed out there were for Yakonov a rotten span of time and the greatest failure of his whole life." "He was sentenced in 1932." "He was a young radio engineer back then." "But by the time of his arrest he had gone to foreign business trips twice." "Those business trips were the reason for his trial." "He was one of the first zeks to work at one of those early special prisons." "How keen he was on forgetting his prison years!" "He always tried to avoid the people who remembered these evil years or who knew him as a prisoner." "End of Episode 2"