"What are they like, these girls?" "They're very good." "Bit wild." "Spend their money quickly, work hard." "Are they literate?" "Some of them." "In reformatories since being picked up." "Jobs like this." "It's degrading." "You shouldn't use human beings to move earth." "No." "And it's not efficient." "If they'd give me more excavators I'd be a year ahead." "You're an impatient generation." "Weren't you?" "Yes, we were." "Very." "Don't be too impatient, comrade." "We've come very far, very fast." "I know, comrade." "Yes, but do you know what it cost?" "There were children then who lived off human flesh." "Did you know that?" "What is your interest in this girl, Comrade General?" "She may be my brother's child." "Yuri Andreyevich?" "Yes." "My half brother, I should say." "If she is, she's also Lara's child." "The Lara?" "The Lara, yes." "This is a new edition of the Lara poems." "Yes, I know." "We admire your brother very much." "Yes." "Everybody seems to, now." "We couldn't admire him when we weren't allowed to read him." "No." "Come in." "I sent for you, comrade." "You're not in any trouble." "I'm General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago." "I'm looking for someone." "Do you understand?" "The person I'm looking for would be my niece." "Please sit down." "Your name is...?" "Tonya Komarov, Comrade General." "They found you in Mongolia?" "Yes, Comrade General." "What were you doing there?" "I was lost, Comrade General." "How did you come to be lost?" "I've forgotten." "Was Komarovsky your father's name?" "I suppose so, Comrade General." "You suppose so?" "It's a common name." "Do you remember your father?" "No." "Do you remember your mother?" "Yes, I remember my mother." "What was her name?" "Mummy." "What was she like?" "I mean, what did she look like?" "Big." "Big?" "I was little." "She looked big." "Can you read?" "Yes." ""Lara:" "A Cycle of Poems by Y.A. Zhivago."" "Not me." "My half brother." "The person I'm looking for would be this man's daughter." "This would be her mother." ""Lara."" "Did anybody ever call your mother Lara?" "I don't know." "I don't think so." "She's nice." "I'm not your niece, Comrade General." "I'm nobody's idea of an uncle." "But if this man were my father, I should want to know." "Did your mother tell you your father was a poet?" "My father wasn't a poet." "What was your father?" "Not a poet." "Did you like your father?" "I've forgotten." "But you liked your mother." "Yes, of course." "Does the name Strelnikov mean anything to you?" "Strelnikov?" "Varykino?" "That's a place, not a person." "Gromeko?" "Gromeko." "Yes." "You see he lost his mother at about the same age you were when your mother lost you." "And in the same part of the world." ""Now is life's artful triumph of vanities destroyed for the spirit has vanished from its tabernacle." "Its clay groweth black." "The vessel is shattered, voiceless, emotionless dead." "Committing which unto the grave..."" "Yuri!" "You and your husband will dine with us, Madame Gromeko." "Thank you, Father." "Will you lie down then, Yuri?" "Your mummy and I were great friends." "So now we are going to look after you." "Thank you." "That's Mother's!" "It's yours now." "Yes, Yuri, Mummy left it to you." "In her will." "Do you know what a will is, old chap?" "Money." "No, Yuri, just this." "Your daddy has all..." "Can you play it?" "Thought all people here could play the balalaika." "You don't live here, do you?" "No, we live in Moscow." "That's a long way from here." "But you'll like Moscow." "Won't he?" "In a bit." "Takes time to get used to things, doesn't it?" "Mother could play it." "Well, your mother was an artist, Yuri." "She could make this common little instrument sound like two guitars." "Your mother had a gift." "Perhaps Yuri's got a gift." "Would you like lessons?" "I can't play it." "Say good night to Yuri, Tonya." "He's your brother now." "Good night, Yuri." "Good night, old chap." "Good night." "The Gromekos didn't know what to make of him." "He made his reputation as a poet while he studied to be a doctor." "He said poetry was no more a vocation than good health." "What he needed was a job." "Pretty?" "Very." "It's their right to be pretty." "What do you do next year, Zhivago?" "I thought of general practice." "Think about doing pure research." "It's exciting, important." "Can be beautiful." "General practice." "Life." "He wants to see life." "Well, you'll find that pretty creatures do ugly things to people." "What's your name?" "Antipov." "Address?" "15 Petrovka." "I'll have these." "We have permission from the police." "Well, you claim them at the station." "When?" "Now, if you like." "Very well." "Pasha!" "He's my brother." "Well, take him home, miss." "Before he gets into trouble." "Pasha, please." "It's got to be done." "Why has it got to be done?" "For them." "For the Revolution." "They don't want a revolution." "They do." "They don't know it, but that's what they want." "Give me some of those, comrade." "Pasha?" "Are you a Bolshevik?" "No, the Bolsheviks don't like me, and I don't like them." "They don't know right from wrong." "Pasha Antipov, you're an awful prig." "Why did you tell him I was your brother?" "What else could I have told him?" "You could've told him I was your fiancé." "Pasha, don't be silly." "I'm..." "Monsieur Komarovsky has come to see my mother on business." "People gossip round here." "It's the system, Lara." "People will be different after the Revolution." "Will you come?" "No, Pasha." "I've got exams to take, Pasha." "I've got to get my scholarship." "Hello, Auntie." "There's a letter for you." "Oh!" "From Paris." "Oh..." "Lovely writing." "She's coming home next month." "Tonya?" "Oh, that's good." "He does seem to be very well-informed." "And such a handsome figure of a..." "Good evening, maman." "Madame." "Larissa." "You can work in there, dear." "Monsieur Komarovsky's here." "Good evening, Larissa." "Good evening, monsieur." "He advises some very important people." "Yes, I know." "He has government connections." "I don't know, I'm sure." "Isn't he very expensive?" "Monsieur Komarovsky advises me out of kindness, baroness." "He was a friend of my late husband's." "Oh, I see." "Allow me." "Tuesday, if I can, my dear." "Bye." "Where did you get this?" "Friend gave it to me, monsieur." "You're not to go to this "peaceful" demonstration." "May not be as peaceful as they think." "That's all I'll say." "Tell your friend she's silly." "Yes, monsieur." "How old are you now?" "Seventeen, monsieur." "Hundred and three." "Oh, dear." "And I was so looking forward to it." "Oh, never mind." "I'll be all right here." "You will take Lara, won't you, Victor Ippolitovich?" "So stupid of me." "It's her first long gown..." "I think you'd better call it off." "I'll stay with you." "Nonsense, I'll be perfectly all right." "I've got a book." "So disappointing for her, Victor Ippolitovich." "There's so little opportunity to mix with good society." "Very well, get your coat." "We're late, if we're going." "I want to avoid Kropotkin Street." ""Brotherhood and freedom." Yuri, what splendid words." ""Justice, equality and bread."" "Don't you think they're splendid?" "Yes, I do." ""Brotherhood and freedom."" "Brotherhood and fiddlesticks, you're frozen through." "You've no right, Anushka." "It isn't fair." "Ah!" "We'd given you up, monsieur." "My niece." "Coat, Lara?" "Come, my dear." "How's the foie de veau Gascogne?" "As always, monsieur." "All right, not too much..." "Not too much mustard, monsieur." "Wine, monsieur?" "A little light wine, yes." "This place must be very expensive, Monsieur Komarovsky." "It is." "Why not "Victor Ippolitovich"?" "I can't." "Mother made this dress." "Very nice." "She's clever, isn't she?" "Your mother?" "Yes." "Fine little woman." "No doubt they'll sing in tune after the Revolution." "Prepare!" "Mount!" "Tote sabers." "What, what...?" "What?" "Good night, dear." "Good night, Victor Ippolitovich." "Go inside your houses, please." "All these people will be taken care of." "Go inside, please." "All these people will be taken care of." "Go inside, please." "Get inside." "Yuri, please." "No trouble." "Take him inside, or I'll put him under arrest." "Yuri, I beg you." "Tonya's coming home tomorrow." "Yuri!" "Tonya!" "Yuri?" "Well!" "Daddy!" "There, now." "That's enough." "Your mother, your mother." "Mummy!" "Mummy, how are you?" "Me?" "Fit as a fiddle." "Turn round." "Well, they've taught her something." "Look at that." "Isn't Yuri looking well, Tonya?" "Well, let's get along, dear." "Yes, run along, you two." "Oh, I bought you this." "It has a piece about young Russian poets." "Oh, good, thank you." "Does it mention me?" "It begins with you." "You're the best." "Very intelligent nation, the French." "They have their heads together." "Yes, they're looking at the paper." "They're head over heels." "Anushka, stop it!" "Good marriages are made in heaven." "Or some such place." "Victor Ippolitovich?" "Pasha." "I want to talk to you." "No, Pasha." "It's important." "All right." "Pasha!" "How did you do it?" "I didn't." "A dragoon did." "Oh, Pasha, darling!" "Come, come." "Where's your mother?" "Asleep." "Pasha." "Pasha, I can't deal with this." "Have you got any iodine?" "Yes, but..." "Get it." "Pasha, darling!" "Pasha, you must go to a hospital." "I daren't for a day or two." "Will you do something for me?" "Oh, yes." "What?" "Hide this." "Oh, throw it away!" "No." "There'll be no more peaceful demonstrations." "There were women and children." "They rode them down." "Starving women, asking for bread." "Up on Tamskaya Avenue, the pigs were eating, drinking and dancing." "Hide it for me." "Thanks, comrade." "Oh, Pasha, darling, I'm not your comrade." "Yes?" "Who's there?" "It's only Pasha." "Oh." "You came in very late last night." "The time went so quickly." "Good." "Are you going to church?" "Yes." "You know what our Lord said to the woman taken in adultery?" "Yes, Father." "He said, "Go and sin no more."" "And did she?" "I don't know, Father." "Nobody does, child." "The flesh is not weak." "It is strong." "Remember, only the sacrament of marriage will contain it." "Monsieur, it's number six this evening, sir." "The most important person here." "Sorry I'm late." "I've been waiting nearly an hour." "Have you ordered?" "No." "Well, you should have done." "You chose it, Victor." "You've grown up a lot, haven't you?" "Yes." "What did you tell your mama tonight?" "Victor, don't." "May I smoke?" "Yes, of course." "You like it, don't you?" "Cigar smoke." "Come along, my dear." "Drink, drink, drink." "Up, up." "Where did you tell her we were going, your mama?" "She didn't ask." "That's because she knows." "No." "You'd both take an oath she doesn't, but she does." "You know it." "Victor, don't." "What?" "Torment me." "Torment?" "What a little hypocrite it is." "I'm going now, Victor." "If you like, dear." "You see, you'll always come back." "Stay, darling." "Stay." "Wake up!" "Take this and show it to someone if you lose your way." "Professor Boris Kurt." "You find him!" "Now, go on." "Professor Boris Kurt!" "But, Boris, this is genius." "Oh?" "I thought it was Rachmaninoff." "I'm going for a smoke." "How's the general practitioner?" "A bit scared of his finals." "I don't think he need be." "How do you like the idea of marrying a general practitioner?" "Very much." "But no GP has asked me." "No?" "I thought you nomads were hot-blooded?" "A slow lot, these GPs." "How do you fancy a professor of pathology?" "Does he write poetry?" "Alas, no." "Then I'm afraid it's out of the question." "Excuse me." "That's a marvelous girl, Zhivago." "Yes, I'd noticed." "It's for you." "How'd the poet like to see a bit of general practice?" "Thank God you've come." "This is very good of you." "I know." "My assistant." "How do you do?" "Come on, where is she?" "This way." "When did she do it?" "About 8:00 this evening." "You know what it was?" "Why not get a local doctor?" "I couldn't." "No, I suppose you couldn't." "Come on, then." "Let's turn her over." "Right." "Water." "Right, Yuri." "Come on, my dear, pick up." "Now, Yuri." "Come on, dear." "Oh, come on, Yuri." "Sorry." "Well, my dear." "That's it." "That's it." "Good." "Good." "Good." "Is she gonna live?" "Water." "She is, isn't she?" "Yes." "Funny thing." "There's a man, speaks on public platforms." "In with the government, in with the Liberals, in with everybody." "And he risks it all." "For that!" "That's not how poets see them, is it?" "That's how GPs see them." "That's how they are." "From here, she looks beautiful." "Zhivago, I think you're a hard case." "Lara." "Lara!" "There's a child in the case." "Her daughter." "Oh, for heaven's sake, Boris." "She might've thought about Lara before she did it." "Does the girl know?" "I'm afraid she does." "Is she here?" "Yes." "Well, tell her that her mother's going to live." "Wait a minute, Victor." "Yuri." "Yes, of course." "What are we gonna say about this?" "Must we say anything?" "I'm afraid so." "I'm taking her to the hospital." "You know that needn't be difficult." "What's the name of your assistant?" "Zhivago." "Andreyevich?" "Yes, why?" "Do you know him?" "No, I knew his father slightly." "Right." "Cheer up." "I'll have the poor bitch in hospital tonight." "What's his name?" "That's Victor Komarovsky." "He says he knows you." "He executed my father's will." "Oh." "Uncle Alex turned it down." "Komarovsky said there wasn't much in it, and what was there was his." "He's a very good businessman." "But I doubt that he's crooked." "Very good company." "Knows life." "He's had a bad scare tonight." "You don't mind coming here, do you?" "No, no." "It reminds me of my youth." "I went to the hospital again." "And?" "She wants you to forgive her." "For her suspicions." "You can tell her the truth if you like." "Is this him?" "Yes." "He knows nothing about..." "No!" "Pasha, this is Monsieur Komarovsky." "Please." "Will you eat?" "No, thank you." "I hope you don't think this is impertinent." "Not at all." "I've advised Lara's mother for years." "I'm interested in what happens to her." "...something I have to tell you and that is this:" "I am committed to the Revolution." "Nothing, not even Lara has more importance for me." "You misunderstand." "Your political views don't concern me." "I'm probably more sympathetic than you suppose." "I have a few contacts of my own which might surprise you." "How will you live?" "I have a teaching post." "May I know where?" "Gradov, in the Urals." "I know it." "Not much of a place." "It's beautiful country, monsieur." "Be a quiet life, won't it?" "That's what we want." "You'll excuse me:" "Will your salary be adequate?" "Adequate, not more." "Pavel Pavlovich, my chief impression and I mean no offense, is that you're very young." "Monsieur, I hope I don't offend you." "Do people improve with age?" "They grow more tolerant." "To tolerate more in themselves." "What do older people bring to their marriage?" "A little experience." "I'm 26." "My mother died needlessly when I was 8." "My father died in prison." "I have fended for myself." "I've worked my way through school." "I am familiar with things you can hardly guess at." "This is experience of a kind, certainly." "I've no amorous experience, if that's what you mean." "Lara's 17." "That speaks for itself." "You probably find this situation comic." "We don't." "We will marry next year." "I hope I haven't offended you." "Not at all." "Admirable." "A young crusader." "He's..." "He's a very fine young man." "That's obvious." "You're very generous, Monsieur Komarovsky." "Larissa, I want to talk to you." "Monsieur Komarovsky, have you...?" "I beg you, drop this affectation of calling me "Monsieur Komarovsky."" "Under the circumstances, I find it rather ridiculous." "I shall save you from a dreadful error." "There are two kinds of men." "That young man is one kind." "He is high-minded." "He is pure." "The kind of man the world pretends to look up to, but despises." "The kind of man who breeds unhappiness, particularly in women." "Understand?" "No." "I think you do." "There's another kind." "Not high-minded." "Not pure." "But alive." "That your tastes should favor the juvenile is understandable." "But for you to marry him would be a disaster." "Because there's two kinds of women." "Two kinds of women." "And you, as we well know, are not the first kind." "You, my dear are a slut." "I am not!" "We'll see." "Don't delude yourself this was rape." "That would flatter us both." "The master's not home, Miss Lara." "Not at home?" "No." "He went to the Sventytskis' Christmas party." "Are you going there, miss?" "Please don't say I told you." "No." "Thank you, Piotr!" "Merry Christmas, Miss Lara!" "Thank you and merry Christmas to you." "Merry Christmas, Yuri Andreyevich." "What's the matter?" "We had an appointment this evening." "Haven't you read the letter?" "I've not been home." "I'm going now." "Where are you going?" "I've a right to know." "Lara, what's in this letter?" "What's in this letter?" "Are you breaking...?" "It's all in the letter." "What is?" "Everything." "Don't!" "There's an extraordinary girl at this party." "I know." "I'm dancing with her." "You're keen tonight, Victor." "I like to win." "Silence!" "Silence, everybody." "Silence, please." "I have a very delightful announcement to make." "Oh, Madame Sventytski." "Yes, why not?" "I have to announce that Dr. Yuri Zhivago, yes, Dr. Zhivago he came third in all Moscow." "Now, listen." "Please, please." "Dr. Zhivago is betrothed in marriage to..." "My dear Victor!" "My dear man." "Get her out." "What?" "Get her out." "Get her out!" "Yes, yes." "I'll get the police." "No!" "Don't get the police." "Leave me!" "I do not want the police." "Just get her out!" "Let her go." "Please." "Quiet, friends." "Please give way, yes?" "Please, would you mind?" "Would you mind?" "Thank you." "Our destinies seem to be interwoven." "Yes." "I was a close friend of your father." "I knew you were his business partner." "Rather more than that." "I was present at his death." "Also, I'm in contact with your brother." "Yevgraf?" "I'm in contact with those in contact with him." "I disagree with Bolshevism." "Thank you." "You seem to know your trade." "But I can still admire Bolsheviks as men." "Shall I tell you why?" "Yes." "They may win." "I'd like to meet him." "Yevgraf." "He sent me a marvelous letter." "He likes my poetry." "That would've pleased your father." "Your father was not a bad man, Yuri." "If I may call you Yuri." "I hardly knew him." "You, perhaps, may not credit this but he was devoted to your mother." "May I continue to rely on your professional discretion?" "You mean, will I tell anyone the truth about that girl?" "That's what I mean, yes." "You may continue to rely on my professional...et cetera." "You are fastidious, aren't you?" "What happens to a girl like that when a man like you is done with her?" "Interested?" "I give her to you." "You shouldn't smoke." "You've had a shock." "I give her to you, Yuri Andreyevich." "A wedding present." "Where have you seen that girl before?" "What makes you think I've seen her?" "Haven't you?" "Yes." "Where?" "I'm not supposed to say." "It was on a case." "Her mother..." "No, don't tell me if you shouldn't." "To the bourgeois, it was a war between the Allies and Germany." "To the Bolsheviks, the Allied and the German upper classes." "And which of them won was a matter of indifference." "I was ordered by the Party to enlist." "I gave my name as Petrov." "They shouted for victory all over Europe prayed for victory, to the same God." "My task, the Party's task, was to organize defeat." "From defeat would spring the Revolution." "And the Revolution would be victory for us." "The Party looked to the conscript peasants." "Most of them wearing their first good pair of boots." "When the boots wore out, they'd be ready to listen." "Later, I took three battalions with me out of the front line." "The best day's work I ever did." "For now, there was nothing to be done." "There were too many volunteers, like me." "Mostly it was mere hysteria." "There were men with better motives, who saw that times were critical and wanted a man's part." "Good men, wasted." "Unhappy men too." "Unhappy in their jobs." "Unhappy with their wives." "Doubting themselves." "Happy men don't volunteer." "They wait their turn and thank God if their age or work delays it." "The ones who got back home at the price of an arm, an eye or a leg these were the lucky ones." "Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that 900-mile-long front and our cursed capacity for suffering." "By the second winter of the war the boots had worn out but the line still held." "Their greatcoats fell to pieces on their backs." "Their rations were irregular." "Half of them went into action without arms, led by men they didn't trust." "Come on, you bastards!" "And those they did trust..." "Come on, comrades, come on!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Comrades!" "Earthshakers!" "Show them!" "Charge them!" "At last, they did what all the armies dreamed of doing." "They began to go home." "That was the beginning of the Revolution." "Deserters." "Replacements." "Tote arms!" "Come back!" "Stick together!" "Stick together and we'll be all right." "And be ready for them." "Turn round, lads." "Don't go any further." "Come on, turn around." "Pigs for the slaughter." "Turn round, lads!" "Don't listen to them." "Get back in your ranks, I say!" "Don't pay any attention to those cowards!" "No more war!" "No more war!" "Listen, lads." "Ten miles up that road are the Germans!" "Rubbish!" "It's not rubbish." "They're coming." "And they're coming fast." "You've let them in!" "They're coming for your wives, your houses..." "...your country." "Your country, officer!" "Yes, my country!" "And proud..." "Get back in your ranks!" "Get back in your ranks, I say!" "Get back!" "Get back in ranks!" "Are you a nurse?" "Yes." "Are you all right?" "Yes." "Then help me." "I'm not a trained nurse, I'm a volunteer." "I see, right." "Why did you volunteer?" "I came here to find my husband." "Very gently." "Have you ever seen an operation?" "Yes." "We'll manage." "They're in the next village, brothers!" "The Germans." "Your Honor..." "Keep still." "Did you find your husband?" "No." "Your Honor..." "Yes, we'd better be off." "You often look at me as though you knew me." "I have seen you." "Four years ago, Christmas Eve." "Were you there?" "No wonder you look at me." "Did you know Victor Komarovsky?" "Yes, I did." "That young man who took you away..." "My husband." "A lot of courage." "He made us look very feeble." "As a matter of fact, I thought you both did." "Good man to shoot at." "I'd give anything never to have met him." "The Tsar's in prison." "Lenin's in Moscow!" "Civil war has started." "Good!" "Civil war, good?" "Not good, Comrade Nurse." "Inevitable." "But Lenin in Moscow!" "This Lenin, will he be the new Tsar then?" "Listen, Daddy, no more Tsars, no more masters!" "Only workers in a workers' state!" "How about that?" "Are you a doctor?" "Yes." "Follow me, please." "I can't deal with this." "Order of the Provisional Government." "You'll have to try." ""If you could see how hard we've been working I'm sure you'd forgive me for not writing more."" "When was that written?" "July 20th." "Eight weeks!" ""But now the war seems to have stopped." "The hospital is emptying, and I shall have more time." "I may even get time to write some verse, if I've not forgotten how to."" "Oh, I do hope so." ""Larissa Antipova is still here, and I admire her more and more." "She has that strange gift of healing, which doctors don't believe in." "She often does the wrong things, but it always seems to work out right." "How is Uncle Alex?" "Can he still get his tobacco?"" "Would that he could." ""Can Sasha say his letters yet?" "And how is Auntie Anna?"" "He didn't get my letter." ""Most of all, my dearest, how are you?"" "Strangely upsetting, he doesn't know she's dead." "Can't see what difference it makes." "They're at it again!" "I wish they'd decide once and for all which gang of hooligans constitutes the government of this country!" "Cheer up, Sergei." "Don't you want to go home?" "There's fighting at home, Your Honor." "I've had enough." "Red Guards and White Guards..." "The old man's had enough." "Your Honor is a kind gentleman." "And the nurse is a kind lady!" "Finished?" "Just about." "In a while, you'll be with your girl." "lf I can get on a train." "I want to be with Katya more than anything in the world." "Yes, of course." "But now that we're going, I feel sad." "Sad." "Really sad." "Well, we've been here some time." "This must have been a lovely house once." "Don't you think?" "What are you going to do?" "In Gradov?" "Yes." "I'll be all right." "I wish I could think so." "You could run a laundry." "What will you do?" "I suppose I'll go back to the hospital." "It's funny to think of you there." "I used to pass it on my way to school." "Do you ever come to Moscow?" "From Gradov?" "If only there were someone to look after you." "Of course, if there were, I'd be destroyed by jealousy." "Zhivago, don't." "My dear..." "Don't, please." "Now, look what you've made me do." "Yuri, we've been together six months on the road and here." "We've not done anything you'll have to lie about to Tonya." "I don't want you to have to lie about me." "You understand that, Yuri?" "You understand everything." "Come on, comrades!" "I'm in a hurry!" "Going home, Kirill?" "Home, Your Excellency?" "Petrograd." "I'm joining the Red Guard." "What about your wife?" "Sometimes, Comrade Nurse, women have to wait." "Right." "Goodbye, honored doctor." "Want some advice?" "Said the millstone to the barley." "That's right." "Adapt yourself." "Goodbye, Ivanov." "Goodbye, Your Honor." "Goodbye, Andre." "Goodbye, Simeon." "I'll never forget Your Honor." "Never." "Goodbye, Zhivago." "Goodbye." "Thank you." "Pilenko." "Giddap!" "Goodbye, brothers!" "Goodbye!" "The doctor is a gentleman." "Right." "Written all over him." "He's a good man." "God rot good men." "Yuri!" "This is Comrade Yelkin, our local delegate." "He lives here." "How do you do?" "Welcome." "Comrade Kaprugina." "Welcome." "It's not for you to welcome us." "Comrade Kaprugina is the Chairman of the Residents' Committee." "Yes, of course." "Your discharge papers?" "I signed them myself, I'm afraid." "Holy Cross?" "What?" "Holy Cross Hospital, it's on..." "The Second Reformed Hospital." "Good." "It needed reforming." "Medicals report to their place of work at once." "Yes, I believe there's typhus." "You've been listening to rumormongers." "There is no typhus in our city." "Well, that's good news." "I'll report tomorrow." "When you've started work, you'll get a ration book." "I've always worked." "Whatever is the matter?" "You are." "There was living space for 13 families in this one house." "Yes, this is a better arrangement, comrades." "More just." "But it is more just." "Why did it sound so funny?" "Is it good to be home?" "Sasha?" "Who else?" "This is your daddy, Sasha." "Sasha." "Sasha!" "Naughty boy!" "No, don't say that." "May I come in?" "Watch carefully." "I'm about to ignite the last half of the last cigar in Moscow." "Good meal?" "Very." "Say something." "That was very good, Tonya." "That was nothing." "She saved that salami for three months." "Have you, darling?" "I got it for a clock." "She's a marvel." "Coffee, you observe." "Stop it, Daddy." "He knows I'm a marvel." "Did you write any poetry?" "Quite a lot." "Is it good?" "Yes." "I think so." "Can I see it?" "But of course." "What happened to Nurse Antipova?" "Your letters were full of her." "Yes, I suppose they were." "The girl who shot friend Komarovsky, isn't it?" "Yes, Daddy." "You know it is." "She's gone home to her little girl." "Oh, we shan't see her then?" "No." "What a pity." "Farewell, the pleasures of the flesh." "What I don't understand is how we'll stay alive this winter." "You have no right to call me from work." "As a Soviet Deputy, I..." "That gives you power, not the right." "It's noticed, you know." "Your attitude is noticed." "You should have called the area doctor." "I want this done quietly." "Why, what is it?" "Typhus?" "I'll take him away." "Get me some transport." "It isn't typhus." "It's another disease we don't have in Moscow: starvation." "That gives you satisfaction?" "It'd satisfy me to hear you admit it." "Would it?" "Why?" "Because it is so." "Your attitude is noticed, you know." "Oh, yes, it's been noticed." "Yuri!" "Hello." "The stove's out." "Tonya, the stove's out." "What's wrong with you?" "No wonder he's losing weight." "She lets it out as soon as you go and lights it before you come home." "We haven't enough fuel." "I told myself it was beneath my dignity to arrest a man for pilfering firewood." "But nothing ordered by the Party is beneath dignity and the Party was right." "One man desperate for a bit of fuel is pathetic." "Five million people desperate for fuel will destroy a city." "That was the first time I ever saw my brother." "But I knew him." "And I knew that I would disobey the Party." "Perhaps it was the tie of blood between us, but I doubt it." "We were only half-tied." "Brothers will betray a brother." "As a policeman, I'd say:" ""Get hold of a man's brother, and you're halfway home. "" "Nor was it admiration for a better man than me." "I did admire him, but I didn't think he was a better man." "Besides, I've executed better men than me with a small pistol." "You'll have to live like the rest of us, doctor." "Bring it back!" "Bring that back!" "Oh, listen to His Excellency." "I want no anarchy!" "I want this carried out correctly." "What are you doing?" "Reallocation of living space." "50 square meters per family of less than five." "Damn it, whose house is this anyway?" "Father, be quiet!" "50 square meters!" "What're you doing with my things?" "They're being stored." "They're being stolen." "Just a minute!" "And where did you get this?" "I pulled it out of a fence." "I told them who I was." "The old man was hostile." "The girl, cautious." "My brother seemed very pleased." "I think the girl was the only one who guessed at their position." "You're just as I imagined:" "my political conscience." "I asked him, hadn't he one of his own?" "So he talked about the Revolution." "You lay life on a table, and you cut out all the tumors of injustice." "I told him if he felt like that, he should join the Party." "Cutting out the tumors of injustice is a deep operation." "Someone must keep life alive while you do it, by living." "Isn't that right?" "I thought, then, it was wrong." "He told me what he thought of the Party and I trembled for him." "He approved of us, but for reasons which were subtle, like his verse." "Approval such as his could vanish overnight." "I told him so." "I can't approve tonight something you may do tomorrow." "He was walking about with a noose round his neck and didn't know." "So I told him what I had heard about his poems." "Not liked?" "Not liked by whom?" "Why not liked?" "So I told him that." "Do you think it's "personal, petit-bourgeois and self-indulgent"?" "I lied." "But he believed me." "It struck me through to see that my opinion mattered." "The girl knew what it meant." "They couldn't survive what was coming in the city." "I urged them to live obscurely in the country  where they could stay alive." "We have..." "Used to have an estate at Varykino near Yuryatin." "People know us there." "He didn't resist." "I offered to obtain permits, passes, warrants." "Told them what to take and what to leave behind." "I had the impertinence to ask him for a volume of his poems." "And so we parted." "I think I told him we'd meet again in better times." "But perhaps I didn't." "Fifty persons!" "Fifty persons only!" "Tonya!" "Yes!" "Fifty persons only!" "Get back!" "Charming accommodation." ""Charming accommodation." That's very good." "I'm an intellectual." "Shut up, you "intellectual."" "Shut up, you lickspittle." "Forced labor." "Attention, comrades, your train will leave tomorrow morning." ""Health regulations for the journey:" "Night soil will be emptied every morning." "Straw to be replaced at 10-day intervals, the old straw burned." "If fresh straw is unavailable, old straw will be turned."" "This is disinfectant." "Use it." ""We have a unit of Voluntary Labor."" "Liar." ""You're required by the Military Committee to assist them." "One car is occupied by sailors of the heroic Kronstadt Sailors' Soviet."" "So you'll be in good hands." "They're idiots." ""In approximately 11 days' time, you'll pass through the Urals Province where White Guards, aided by foreign interventionists and other criminal reactionary elements have been active." "The Military Committee assures you the criminals have been routed in that area by Red Guard units under the command of People's Commander Strelnikov."" "There's a man." "Clap him." ""The line is definitely clear." "Long live the Revolution."" "Long live anarchy!" "Lickspittle!" "Bureaucrat!" "Is that necessary?" "Six volunteers I've signed for, and six I'll deliver." "I'm a free man, lickspittle." "There's nothing you can do about it." "I'm the only free man on this train." "The rest of you are cattle!" "Help me, for the love of God!" "Come on!" "Yuri, the child is dead." "It wasn't my child, dear, and his little soul's in heaven now." "Who did it, comrade, the Whites?" "The Whites?" "No." "Strelnikov." "Well, then, you must have done something." "It wasn't us." "The commander said we'd sold horses to the Whites." "It was those pigs in Kuniko." "We told him, but he didn't believe us." "You were lying." "As God's my witness..." "But he isn't." "Commander Strelnikov is a great man." "A commander, Sasha, and he lives on bread and water." "Does he?" "I don't know." "They say so." "It's true." "No one knows where he comes from." "And they never know where he is." "He's back up the line." "Yes?" "Now, someone's for it, eh?" "Oh, really!" "Not again." "What this time?" "Never mind, Father." "Get a good night's sleep." "I know what I'm going to do." "Look!" "The Urals." "Look, Sasha!" "That's where we're going, darling." "Through the mountains and into the forest." "Then keeping much warmer still." "Will there be wolves in the forest?" "Strelnikov!" "Yes." "That's Strelnikov." "Daddy?" "What's that noise?" "It's only a waterfall." "No, the other noise." "Guns, Sasha." "Are they fighting?" "They must be." "It's a long way away." "Let's go to sleep." "Get him!" "No!" "Look." "ls that all?" "That's all." "Bring him." "Who sent you here?" "No one sent me here, commander." "I'm with my wife and child." "They're on the train from Moscow." "Yes, we've checked that." "Then?" "You put your knife with a fork and a spoon and it looks innocuous." "Perhaps you travel with a wife and child for the same reason." "Yuryatin is occupied by White Guards." "Is that why you're going there?" "No, we're going on to Varykino." "Not through Yuryatin." "It's under shellfire." "Commander, I'm not a White Agent." "No, I don't think you are." "All right, Kolya." "Thank you." "Sit down, doctor." "Take it." "It's not as silly as it seems." "There have been one or two attempts." "Are you the poet?" "Yes." "I used to admire your poetry." "Thank you." "I shouldn't now." "I should find it absurdly personal, don't you agree?" "Feelings, insights, affections." "It's suddenly trivial now." "You don't agree." "You're wrong." "The personal life is dead in Russia." "History has killed it." "I can see how you might hate me." "I hate everything you say, but not enough to kill you for it." "You have a brother." "Yevgraf?" "Yevgraf, yes." "The policeman." "I didn't know that." "Perhaps not." "A secret policeman." "Did he send you here?" "Yevgraf?" "No, Yevgraf's a Bolshevik." "I don't know anything about these things." "Oh, you know a great deal." "When you came in, you recognized me." "How?" "Has someone shown you photographs?" "No." "I am certain you recognized me." "I've seen you before." "When?" "Six years ago." "Go on." "Christmas Eve, you..." "You were there?" "Or has someone told you this?" "I attended to the man who was injured by your wife." "Why do you call her my wife?" "I met her again." "We served together on the Ukrainian front." "I'm sure she'd vouch for me." "I haven't seen her since the war." "She's in Yuryatin." "Yuryatin?" "The private life is dead for a man with any manhood." "We saw a sample of your manhood on the way, at Mink." "They sold horses to the Whites." "No." "lt seems you burnt the wrong village." "They always say that, does it matter?" "A village betrays us, one is burnt." "Point made." "Your point, their village." "Kolya!" "What will you do with your wife and child in Varykino?" "Just live." "Take him away." "He's innocent." "You're lucky." "We were diverted." "Do you know where to?" "Varykino Halt." "Hello?" "How lovely." "Oh, how lovely!" "Hello?" "Alexander Maximovich?" "Yes." "It's me, Petya." "Your Honor." "Now, now, now." "That's all done with, you know." "How do we get to the house, Petya?" "As you always did." "Look, Sasha." "What is it, Petya?" "Forest fire?" "Forest fire, Your Honor?" "That's Yuryatin." "Poor souls." "First the Reds, then the Whites." "Now the Reds again." "That Strelnikov, his heart must be dead." "Go on." "We'll soon be there, Sasha." "Another five miles." "Is it that far?" "One forgets." "How is the place?" "Well enough, Your Honor." "It's all locked up, you know?" "Varykino." "All locked up, you see." "A body, styling itself the "Yuryatin Committee of Revolutionary Justice" has expropriated my house in the name of the people." "Very well." "I'm one of the people too!" "Don't, Your Honor!" "They'd call it counterrevolution." "Father, don't." "Petya brought us here, making him a counterrevolutionary." "They shoot counterrevolutionaries." "It's not the Reds in the town, but in the forest." "Partisans." "Here?" "Who knows?" "They go where they want and do what they want." "All we need is a roof." "And a bit of garden." "Is there nowhere?" "They didn't lock the cottage." "Oh, yes, we can manage here." "The stove works." "I'll find a few sticks of furniture." "And some seed potatoes?" "I'm afraid the garden is dreadfully run back." "Yes, thank you." "Well done, my boy." "Scratch a Russian and you'll find a peasant." "I've always said so." "Well, you're wrong." "He works like a peasant but he isn't a peasant." "I don't mind, Tonya, really." "lt's a good life." "Certainly is." "I wouldn't be surprised if you looked back on this time as one of your best." "Awfully glad about the expected new arrival, Yuri." "Anna was born here, you know." "No, I didn't know that." "Oh, I'm terribly glad." "Here's winged Mercury." "Looks a bit down in the mouth." "Petya." "What news from Yuryatin?" "No lard, no sugar." "Oil next week, perhaps." "Flour, salt, coffee and nails." "Bad news?" "Oh, Lord, not another purge." "No." "Strelnikov's gone." "Well, that's not bad news." "No, he's in Manchuria, they say." "That's the news." "They've shot the Tsar." "And all his family." "Oh, that's a savage deed!" "What's it for?" "It's to show there's no going back." "Yuri, why don't you go to Yuryatin?" "Yes, why don't you, my boy?" "It'd do you good." "Why?" "What's in Yuryatin?" "It isn't Petersburg." "Very decent little library there." "lf it's still there." "I wish you would." "No, I don't think so." "Anyway, the roads are blocked." "Zhivago." "Yes." "How are you?" "What are you doing here?" "We're at Varykino." "Varykino?" "Why Varykino?" "Why not?" "We had to go somewhere." "But here?" "I came to find my husband." "The one reported killed." "Strelnikov." "I met him." "Met him?" "Yes." "How long have you been living here?" "About a year." "Alone?" "With Katya." "Where is Katya now?" "At school." "Is Tonya with you?" "All of us." "Sasha?" "Of course." "What are we going to do?" "I don't know." "Yuri?" "It's awfully early, isn't it?" "Half past 6." "What're you doing?" "Nothing." "Couldn't sleep." "ls anything the matter?" "No." "Shall I get some tea?" "Yes, do." "Hello." "You are silly." "We called and called." "Did you?" "I didn't hear." "Well, we did." "Hello, Lara." "Hello." "How's Olya Petrovna?" "She gets worse and worse." "She gave us C.I. and arithmetic all morning." "C.I.?" "Civic Instruction." "Look." "That's very good, Katya." "Thank you." "It's the Tsar." "The Tsar's an enemy of the people." "Well, he didn't know he was an enemy of the people." "Well, he should've known, shouldn't he?" "Yes, he should." "Fancy not knowing C.I. Doesn't your little boy go to school?" "Lunch." "Good." "Come on, you." "Smell." "What?" "This one's a prizefighter." "Yuri." "Wait a minute." "There." "I'm going into Yuryatin, darling." "What, now?" "Yes, I want to get some morphine, disinfectant." "I shan't need morphine." "You never know." "I shan't need it today." "No, but it's pretty close." "I hadn't realized." "You'll be back before dark?" "Long before." "Yes, yes, my darling, do what's best." "I am not coming back." "I understand." "But never, Lara!" "You understand?" "Do you believe me?" "Comrade Doctor, I need a medical officer." "Sorry, I have a wife and child in Varykino." "And a mistress in Yuryatin." "Comrade Medical Officer, we are Red Partisans." "And we shoot deserters." "Where are you taking me?" "To the front." "And where is the front?" "Good question, doctor." "It's where there are enemies of the Revolution." "Wherever there is one gang of White Guards or foreign interventionists." "Where there's a resentful bourgeois, an unreliable schoolmaster one dubious poet hugging his private life." "That too is the front." "How long will you keep me?" "For as long as we need you." "Now!" "Charge!" "Well, that was easy." "Come on, doctor, let's see what we've done." "St. Michael's Military School." "You old bastard!" "It doesn't matter." "Did you ever love a woman, Razin?" "I once had a wife and four children." "He has been a good comrade." "And a good medic." "We took him from his wife and from his child." "None of this matters." "What does matter, Comrade Commissar?" "Tell me, I've forgotten." "This is contemptible." "He stays." "I command this unit!" "We command jointly." "The Party bulletin expressly states..." "I could have you taken out and shot." "And could you have the Party taken out and shot?" "As the military struggle nears its close, the political one intensifies." "In victory, the military will have served its purpose." "All men will then be judged politically regardless of their military record." "Meanwhile, there are still White Units in this area." "The doctor stays." "That concludes the meeting." "Comrade, where are you going?" "Are you running away, comrade?" "Soldiers." "Red soldiers or White soldiers?" "Soldiers." "Tonya?" "Tonya!" "Sasha!" "Tonya!" "This is Yuryatin?" "Yes, Yuryatin." "What's happened at Varykino?" "Moscow folks?" "Yes." "They've gone away." "Gone away." "There's nobody at Varykino." "Lord, what happiness!" "They say you're alive." "Someone saw you near the town." "I take it you've gone to Varykino, so I'm going there myself with Katya." "Just in case, I've left a little food." "Boiled potatoes mostly." "Put the lid back on the pan or the rats will get it." "I'm mad with joy!" "Tonya." "Tonya!" "Yuri." "Tonya!" "Yuri." "Tonya." "Yuri, darling." "It's all right, Yuri." "They're safe." "They're in Moscow." "ln Moscow?" "Yes." "Tonya?" "All of them." "They're safe." "Safe." "Firing squads!" "Better." "What?" "I've got a letter for you." "I've had it three months." "And it was three months getting here." "It's from Moscow." "I think it's from Tonya." "It's addressed to you, care of me." "She came into Yuryatin to find you when you vanished." "Someone sent her here." "You met?" "She's very fine." "My dearest dear." "I'm sending this to Larissa Antipova's because if you are alive, which God grant I think that is where you will go." "We have a little daughter, Yuri." "Did you know?" "Her name's Anna." "Father sends greetings." "Sasha has grown quite a lot." "He's quite big now." "Whenever we speak of you, he weeps and won't be comforted." "This is what I have to tell you:" "We are being deported from Russia." "We can't make out if you'd be allowed to join us." "An organization in Paris, which I mustn't name, will know where we are." "Nothing is certain, and there's little time." "I'm writing this in haste." "They're coming for us now." "God bless you." "I must honestly admit that Antipova is a good person." "Yuri, when they got away to Moscow, she left something here." "Yuri?" "May I come in?" "Yuri Andreyevich, you've changed, I think." "Oh, yes, decidedly." "Larissa remarkably the same." "I came from Moscow." "I'm on the way to Vladivostok." "I'm here to offer you my help." "We don't want it." "Speak for yourself." "We don't want it." "Yuri Andreyevich, you spent two years with the Partisan's 5th Division." "You have no discharge, so you are a deserter." "Your family in Paris is involved in a dangerous émigré organization." "Now all these are technicalities." "But your style of life everything you say, your published writings, are flagrantly subversive." "Your days are numbered unless I help you." "Do you want my help?" "No." "Wait, Yuri." "Larissa, three glasses." "No." "Yuri, you must see how serious this is." "Please don't underestimate me." "Practically or morally, I'm not the man you take me for." "How do you know all this about Yuri?" "How can you help?" "I do and I can." "Isn't that sufficient?" "No." "Our Eastern Seaboard is an undeveloped area." "The commissariat of foreign affairs wants to form an independent state." "It affords us a temporary channel of communication with the outside world." "I have good contacts in the Far East." "I've been appointed the Minister of Justice." "The Bolsheviks trust you?" "They trust no one." "They found me useful." "Here's how I can help you." "You come with me as far as the Pacific Coast." "From there you can go where you like." "To Paris, or not." "I think you'd better go." "Your rarefied selfishness is intolerable." "Larissa's in danger too." "By association with me?" "No." "Not by association with you." "You're a small fry." "By association with Strelnikov." "I never met Strelnikov." "You're married to him, they know that." "I was married to Pasha Antipov." "I understand, I understand." "But they don't." "You're being watched." "Do you know why?" "A husband is a sticky commodity, my dear." "Go away." "More of your high-minded lunacy?" "You have a child to think of!" "Look here." "That's sugar for the child." "I don't want it." "You would refuse my sugar?" "Who are you to refuse me anything?" "!" "Now you go." "I came..." "Go!" "Go!" "I came to you in good faith." "Stay here then, and get your desserts!" "Your desserts, do you hear me?" "Do you think you're immaculate?" "You're not immaculate!" "I know you!" "Do you hear me?" "!" "We're all made of the same clay, you know!" "Clay!" "Clay!" "Lara?" "He's rubbish, Lara." "Yes." "Rubbish." "I wish he'd never happened." "Does it matter?" "Doesn't it?" "Not to me." "What shall we do?" "Can we get on a train?" "No, they'd arrest us on the spot." "I don't want to stay here and wait." "No." "Listen..." "...we could go to..." "Varykino." "They'd find out sooner or later." "Yes, but later." "lf our days are really numbered..." "Yes." "We'd better live them before we are parted." "Yes." "Father caught a flea!" "Ho, ho, ho" "I love the snow One, two, three" "Anna taught me to write at this desk." "This isn't me, Yuri." "Yes, it is." "No." "It's you." ""Lara."" "Yuri!" "Yuri, there's a wolf howling!" "Oh, yes, I've..." "I've seen them." "They're frightened." "They won't harm us." "Yes, I know." "I'm sorry." "It's..." "Oh, Lord, this is an awful time to be alive!" "No." "lt is." "It is!" "No, no." "Wouldn't it have been lovely if we'd met before?" "Before we did?" "Yes." "We'd have got married, had a house and children." "If we'd had children, Yuri, would you have liked a boy or a girl?" "I think we may go mad if we think about all that." "I shall always think about it." "Will you write today?" "No, not today." "Katya!" "Come to me, darling." "Victor!" "We thought it was..." "Quite." "I wonder if you'd mind, comrades?" "My government has a train, standing in Yuryatin." "There's a carriage for me and my assistants." "You will travel in comfort and safety." "I'm not going with you." "I'm not going without you." "So there's an end to it." "Then I'll have to speak to Yuri Andreyevich in private." "Strelnikov is dead." "What?" "Spare me your expressions of regret." "He was a murderous neurotic, and no loss to anyone." "Do you see how this affects Larissa?" "You don't?" "You're a fool." "She's Strelnikov's wife." "Why do you think they haven't arrested her?" "Why do you think they had her watched?" "They were waiting for Strelnikov." "If they thought he'd come running to his wife, they didn't know him." "They knew him well enough." "They caught him five miles from here." "He was arrested on the road." "He didn't conceal himself." "Throughout the interview he insisted they call him Pavel Antipov and refused to answer to "Strelnikov."" "On his way to execution, he took a pistol and blew his own brains out." "Oh, my God!" "Don't tell Lara this." "I think I know her at least as well as you." "But don't you see her position?" "She's served her purpose." "These men who came to escort me today will come tomorrow as a firing squad." "Now I know exactly what you think of me, and why." "But if you're not coming with me, she's not coming." "So are you coming with me?" "Do you accept the protection of this ignoble Caliban on any terms?" "Is your delicacy so exorbitant that you'd sacrifice a woman and a child to it?" "There's some bags to carry, comrades." "Get in." "Come." "How many?" "All of us." "Sorry, not enough room." "There's got to be room." "It's all right." "I'll bring our sledge." "Hurry." "This train has important people." "You start." "I'll catch you up." "Right, comrades!" "We'll see you at..." "Hurry!" "I'm afraid that's it." "Your young man's not coming." "You fool." "Did you really think he would come with you?" "The man's an idiot." "From Mongolia he could've gone to..." "He'll never leave Russia." "You've come with me, haven't you?" "Yes." "To be sure, it was your duty as a mother." "That's right, Victor." "I'm carrying Yuri's child." "I was born out there." "In the Far East somewhere." "Maybe Mongolia." "I don't remember." "You were born in Mongolia, that very year." "So were a lot of others." "Not many named Tonya, bearing the name Komarov." "Komarov's a common name." "With fair hair, blue eyes, lost at 8 when war broke out in the Far East?" "There's something you haven't told me." "How did you come to be lost?" "I can't remember!" "You must remember something!" "No!" "I'll tell you how I first met your mother." "lf she was my mother." "You judge." "I picked my brother up, literally, on a Moscow street." "He had a fourth-class ration book and was undernourished." "He didn't seem to mind that or anything." "I thought he was a happier man than me." "He suffered me to buy him a new suit and to get him a job at his old hospital." "I saw him off for his first day's work." "This was eight years after he and Lara parted." "So he never saw her again?" "Thank you." "You've been very kind to me." "He must've known how ill he was." "The walls of his heart were like paper." "But he kept it to himself." "He kept a lot to himself." "Please." "I was astonished at the extent of his reputation." "His work was unobtainable at the time." "It was disapproved of by the Party." "But if people love poetry, they love poets." "And nobody loves poetry like a Russian." "Excuse me, comrade." "Are you Yevgraf?" "My name is Lara." "I knew her name from the Lara poems I'd found with Yuri's manuscripts." "I knew your brother." "I need your help." "She'd come to Moscow to look for her child." "I helped her as far as I could." "But I knew it was hopeless." "I think I was a little in love with her." "One day she went away and didn't come back." "She died or vanished somewhere in one of the labor camps." "A nameless number on a list that was afterwards mislaid." "That was quite common in those days." "Tonya." "How did you come to be lost?" "We were running in a street." "We?" "My father." "Not your father." "Komarovsky." "I don't know!" "The street was on fire." "There were explosions and houses were falling down." "He let go of my hand!" "He let go of my hand." "And I was lost." "Your father would've done that?" "Oh, yes." "People will do anything." "It was Komarovsky." "This man was your father." "Why won't you believe it?" "Don't you want to believe it?" "Not if it isn't true." "That's inherited." "Comrade General, when I was a child, I wanted parents." "You can imagine how I wanted parents." "I wanted to die when I was a child." "You know?" "Now I don't know." "I can't be of any use to them now, can I?" "I was hoping I might be of some use to you." "Will you think about it?" "Yes." "It's all right, David." "You work here?" "Yes, I'm an operator." "And what do you operate?" "That." "You've promised to think about it." "Tonya!" "Can you play the balalaika?" "Can she play?" "She's an artist!" "An artist?" "Who taught you?" "No one taught her." "Then it's a gift."