The play "Running" by Mikhail Bulgakov was a landmark work for the author's work and was written on the basis of the memoirs of Bulgakov's wife about emigre life and on the memoirs of General Slashchev.
The work was handed over to the Moscow Art Theater Theater on March 16, 1928. Work on the production was supposed to begin in a month, but after a while the production was canceled, and then a ban was imposed altogether.
Stalin gave a sharply negative assessment of the work, although he considered it possible to add that he could allow the play to be staged if Bulgakov edited it, but Bulgakov refused to do this, the play was banned from showing, and only in 1940 after the death of the author it was published.
Essence of the play
The work tells about the end of the Civil War, all its action is literally permeated with the bitterness of despair of the death of the White movement.
The fate of the white emigrants, thrown out by the revolution abroad, runs through the whole work. Crimea - Constantinople - Paris and beyond, the infinity of flight from the revolution, from Russia, and that at some certain moment there is an understanding that flight is not a way out, you cannot run away from yourself, and the Motherland is part of their sick, suffering souls.
The second, third, fourth dream - the action takes place in early November 1920. The fifth and sixth dreams describe the life of heroes in Constantinople, in the summer of 1921. The seventh - Paris in the autumn of 21. Eighth dream - Constantinople, autumn 1921.
Act one
Dream first. Literally in a few words, Bulgakov shows the harsh environment of the war, the work of the front headquarters, introduces the reader to General Khludov, who takes revenge on his homeland for betrayal, hanging and killing Red Army soldiers, giving the order to open fire "in separation" on Taganash.
The general gives the order to hang Korzukhin as well, who renounces his wife Serafima when she was accused of being red, saying that she "started well, ended badly" Khludov has a real-life prototype of General Slashchev. The author presents General Blackness, who also has a real prototype - General Ulagay. Blackness flees from the Budenovites under the guise of a pregnant Barabanchikova.
Dream second. Everyone flees abroad, and although Archbishop Afrikan compares the flight with the Egyptian exodus of the sons of Israel, General Khludov finds a more capacious analogy of the flight by comparing it with the flight of cockroaches from a suddenly lit light.
Action two
Dream Three A new character, counterintelligence officer Quiet, appears on the scene, looking for dirt on Serafima Korzukhina. Seraphim is ill, when she is accused of being a communist, she knocks out a window and calls for help from General Chernotu, passing by with a detachment of cavalry, the general, with a weapon in his hands, beats her off from counterintelligence.
Dream four. It's still going on in the Crimea. Khludov is talking to a ghost - messenger. Golubkov witnesses what is happening in horror. The Cossack, who entered with a report, informs Khludov that Black and Seraphim are waiting for him on the ship. Everything is covered in darkness.
Act Three
Dream fifth. Pseudo-Russian district of Constantinople, General Chernota sells silver gazyri, a symbol of general distinction, in order to get winnings from cockroach races. Khludov accompanies him and bitterly states “Stuffy city! And this is a disgrace - cockroach races. Khludov is constantly haunted by the ghost of Krapilin, whom he has hanged.
Dream six. Still Constantinople, but already summer. There is a litter of Chernoty with Lucy, Golubkov playing the barrel organ. Seraphim appears with a Greek carrying purchases. Blackness and Golubkov drive the Greek away, Golubkov declares his love to Seraphim. Khludov demoted from the army. The heroes are painfully looking for a way out of the current situation, yearning for their homeland, they are literally permeated with a thirst for death, not just anywhere, but precisely at Home in Russia.
act four
Dream seven. The action takes place in Paris. Blackness beats Korzukhin in cards for $20,000 and buys Khludov's medallion from him. Now Golubkov has money to help Seraphim.
Eighth dream Constantinople again. Khludov is still tormented by the ghost of the hanged messenger, Seraphim feels sorry for him and is going to leave for St. Petersburg. Blackness and Golubkov appear. Golubkov and Serafima confess their love to each other. When Khludov is left alone, he shoots himself in the head. And again darkness.
The Budenovites come to check on the monastery church, where the St. Petersburg young Privatdozent Golubkov and Serafima Korzukhina are hiding. The pregnant Barabanchikova hides with them. Golubkov intends to flee to the Crimea, along with Korzukhina, who wants to meet her husband there. The white commander de Brizard appears, at the sight of which Baranchikova throws off her rags and appears in the form of General Charnota. The trinity leaves the monastery and goes to the Crimea.
Meanwhile, the Crimean station was turned into the headquarters of the white forces. Seraphim's husband, Korzukhin, serves as the Minister of Trade there. He asks General Khludov to push through a carload of fur goods, but the general orders the cargo to be burned. Later, Golubkov, Seraphim and the messenger of General Charnota - Krapilin appear. Serafima accuses Khludov of cruelty, for which the white staff accuse her of supporting the communists. Korzukhin renounces his wife, the orderly Krapilin is hanged for unflattering remarks about the activities of General Khludov.
Counterintelligence officer Tichiy threatens Privatdozent Golubkov to report on Serafima as a member of the Communist Party. Staff members believe that a communist wife will disgrace Korzukhin and he will pay off her with thousands of dollars. During the interrogation, Serafima breaks out the window pane and asks General Charnot for help. The one with the weapon beats off Korzukhina from the White Guards.
Later, Golubkov comes to Khludov with a complaint about the arrest of Seraphim. Privatdozent sees how the general is talking with the ghost of the orderly Krapilin. Khludov asks a subordinate staff officer to deliver Korzukhina to headquarters if she has not yet been shot. The staff officer returns with news that Charnota has recaptured Seraphim and taken her to Constantinople. Khludov decides to pursue the fugitives, Golubkov asks to take him with him.
In Constantinople, a drunken Charnota tries to win a bet on a cockroach race. He sells his possessions and bets all the money on a favorite among the cockroaches. However, the poisoned cockroach loses the race and Charnota loses his life savings. The general returns home, where Golubkov is waiting for him. He assures the St. Petersburg intellectual that Serafima is alive, but works as a courtesan. At this time, Seraphim is just returning, Golubkov confesses his love to her, but she rejects him. General Khludov arrives and reports that he has been demoted from the army. Charnota and Golubkov leave for Paris in search of Korzukhin.
In Paris, Golubkov finds Korzukhin and asks him to borrow money for Seraphim, but he refuses, citing the fact that he has never been married. Golubkov, furious, calls Korzukhin a rotten man. General Charnota comes and invites Korzukhin to play for money, in the end he wins 20 thousand dollars from him. Golubkov and Charnota return to Constantinople to Khludov's house. Here Serafima and Golubkov explain their feelings. Charnota decides to stay in Constantinople, as he no longer wants to fight the Bolsheviks. Khludov is left alone, he wants to return to Russia and continue the fight. The ghost of the messenger Krapilin returns, they talk, after which the ghost disappears. Joyful Khludov goes to the window and shoots himself in the temple.
Operator - L. Paatashvili
Mosfilm, 1970
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The play "Running" was transferred by Mikhail Bulgakov in 1928 for staging at the Moscow Art Theater. But the censorship did not see in it evidence of the "historical correctness of the conquests of October", Stalin called the play an "anti-Soviet phenomenon", it was banned. The writer never had a chance to see his favorite offspring on stage.
Meanwhile, the very title of the play testified to the fact that Bulgakov did not at all intend, as he was charged with, to sing of the "White Guard martyrs." Depicting the Civil War, the writer sought to take a high and objective point of view, evaluating both the Reds and the Whites without prejudice. No wonder the poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin called Bulgakov the first who managed to capture the soul of Russian strife.
"Running" - a swift whirlpool historical events, as if self-originating and exceeding in their power the value of anyone's separate individual wills and desires. "Running" is the retreat and defeat of the Whites in the Crimea, the emigration to Constantinople of those who lost the war, and with them those who, due to confusion and spinelessness, were drawn into the general stream. "Flight" is a cockroach tote, a metaphor for the humiliating struggle for the existence of Russian emigrants in Constantinople and Paris, their position as outcasts ("Outcasts" - one of the original titles of the play). The finale of the play is the return to beloved Russia of two of the numerous heroes of the play.
Directors Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov filmed "Running" in 1971. Bulgakov's play is a purely theatrical thing. To go beyond the stage, the directors of the film use some motifs and images of Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard", as well as historical documents. civil war. The school of Igor Savchenko helped the directors to get away from the theatricalization of the film spectacle, from whom they studied at VGIK and worked as an assistant. As well as considerable own experience accumulated in the creation of such famous films, as "Anxious youth", "Pavel Korchagin", "Wind", "Peace to the incoming", "Bad anecdote".
In the first parts of the two-part film "Running", its directors resolutely transfer the drama into the genre of the epic film. This is also facilitated by the art of cameraman Levan Paatashvili, whose expressive large-scale compositions convey both the tension of battles and the quiet beauty of fading nature, powdered with the first, pure snow. The snow has not yet compacted and with a bluish fluff envelops the fields and copses, through which the golden domes of temples gleam. This is how the image of Holy Rus' is created on the screen, for which the heroes of the film, abandoned by fate in a foreign land, will yearn.
The pictures of the flight, as well as the subsequent life of emigrants in Constantinople, embody the drama of the guilty: the fleeing lost to Russia, they lost the right to live in a businesslike way on their native land. The reason is simple: for the most part, the people did not support the white movement. A gulf arose between working people and "gold chasers". This feeling of a fatal break, as the film shows, penetrates into white army, leads to a growing stratification even among the officers, not to mention the mood of the soldiers from the peasants and workers, mobilized for another war after the recent world war.
Troop training episodes Southern Front of the Red Army to the crossing of the Sivash and the assault on the Yushun strongholds, in comparison with the colorful pictures of the Wrangel run, look boringly businesslike on the screen. The plan of attack on the Crimea is being discussed, front commander Mikhail Frunze listens to the considerations of his subordinates, gives instructions, makes amendments to the original plan, caused by the arrival of early cold weather.
And then Sivash is shown in the film. Under the feet of the Red Army soldiers, it is difficult to pass slurry. Their boots and windings are covered with mud. The Red Army soldiers were tired in previous battles. The passage through the Sivash is devoid of even a hint of outward majesty on the screen. Nevertheless, these scenes are beautiful in their own way: they are inspired by the belief of the Red Army soldiers in the justice of the last battles "for land, for freedom", their hope for the approaching world, the dream of returning to their families, to peaceful work. When discussing The Run, voices were sometimes heard that the epic of its first series does not always fit in with the scenes of different genres of the second, in which the authors of the film allegedly made a concession to theatricality. It seems that such accusations are unfair. Of course, at the beginning the film reveals more distinct signs of a work of directing and staging. But even narrowing the action to acting duets, to everyday scenes, Alov and Naumov do not change the cinematography.
Life in exile, the film shows, turned out to be so difficult that it deformed many characters, making some people funny, others gloomy tragic in their actions. Already in the first series, General Khludov looks like a man with an upset mind. The front commander is exhausted by terrible fatigue, openly despises the cowardly and inept commander-in-chief Wrangel, and is the first to realize that the white army is doomed to complete defeat.
General Khludov is not able to change anything in the conditions of general chaos and paralysis of the will, moreover, he begins to understand that "running", that is, the course of historical events, is inevitable and independent of individual aspirations. Nevertheless, he continues to fulfill his duty of honor, as he understands it, trying in vain to stop the enemy’s advance. He issues orders, ruthlessly punishing those who disobey or are unable to carry them out. He hangs people, wanting to restore order in conditions of absolute confusion and panic. Perfectly aware of the futility of his own intentions and the cruelty of his actions, and ironically over himself.
"He frowns, twitches, loves to change intonations ... When he wants to portray a smile, he grins. He excites fear" - this is how Bulgakov defined the external drawing of the role of Khludov, a character who is "all sick, from head to toe."
The remarkable acting achievement of Vladislav Dvorzhetsky is that he plays the person who brought the passionate fulfillment of duty to butchery in the film outwardly completely impassively. Only Khludov's huge eyes on his gravely pale face correspond to Bulgakov's description - "his eyes are old."
Without raising his voice and without changing intonations, General Khludov is talking to the orderly Krapilin. Krapilin - a tall, strong soldier with a well-sculpted Slavic face and a serious, honest look - is played in the film by Nikolai Olyalin. It is the messenger Krapilin who boldly tells the hangman general the truth that he himself already knows: "You won't win the war by choking alone." And he promises Khludov such a future: "And you will be lost, jackal, you will be lost, frantic beast, in a ditch." Khludov immediately orders Krapilin to be executed. They throw a bag over the soldier and hang it on the nearest lamp.
Time passes, Khludov finds himself with other emigrants in Constantinople, becomes like a somnambulist: the ghost of Krapilin appears to him again and again.
Bulgakov's play "Running" has the subtitle "Eight Dreams". And it tries a special form of dramaturgy, in which the events look partly real, partly as if arising in disturbing dreams. In the film by Alov and Naumov, the phantasmagoric nature of the "eight dreams" is conveyed by various means.
In the image of Khludov, the general abnormality of the existence of emigrants, whom fate carries around the world, is intensified by the general's mental illness. Khludov takes the phantom of an inflamed conscience for reality, but at first he cannot understand why the soldier Krapilin is relentlessly pursuing him. The general asks the messenger: "How did you unstick yourself from a long chain of bags and lanterns, how did you leave eternal rest? After all, there were many of you, you were not alone."
Later, General Khludov, who is relentlessly accompanied by the ghost of a courageous truth-seeking soldier, cannot stand the pangs of conscience and decides to "execute himself." The action that surfaced in Khludov's sick imagination is visibly and impressively deployed on the screen.
Khludov rides across a huge snow-covered field past endless chains of motionless soldiers, getting closer and closer to Krapilin, who was waiting for him. Having come close, he asks: "Say something, soldier! Don't be silent!" Krapilin only nods in response, and Khludov of his own free will goes to the gallows, the executioner throws a sack over him. "And then what happened? Just darkness, nothingness - heat ..." Khludov mutters, experiencing the fate of the hanged man.
In the earliest version of Bulgakov's play, Khludov committed suicide. In the finale of "Running", given in 1928 to the Moscow Art Theater, General Khludov, together with Serafima Korzukhina and Golubkov, returned to Russia. In 1937, Bulgakov partly redid his work. Now, in the finale, Khludov, remaining in Constantinople, put a bullet in his forehead. For all the difference in these finals, they were certainly associated with the figure of Khludov, on the resolution of whose fate the meaning of the play largely depended.
Alov and Naumov chose a different course. The end of their film is not related to Khludov at all, but is another, bright this time, dream - the dream of Korzukhina and Golubkov about Russia. The authors of the film leave the fate of Khludov unclear. The general wanted to board a steamer sailing for Russia, but did not dare to do so. His solitary figure on the shore of the Bosporus is seen from a steamer moving away from the shore. It shrinks and shrinks in the distance, and suddenly the authors of the film cut close-up Khludov. With fixed, cold and old eyes, he looks after the people who will soon see their homeland.
One of the critics called Bulgakov's play "a pessimistic comedy". In the film, Alov and Naumov also mix the dramatic with the comedy, the tragic with the farce. The figures of General Khludov and the Cossack General Charnoty, brilliantly played by Mikhail Ulyanov, are contrasting and at the same time inextricably linked.
In the Charnota line, the tragedy of white officers is reduced to a farce. Unlike Khludov, Charnota is not a hangman, but a brave grunt in open battle. “I did not run from death,” he recalls in Constantinople, not without pride. But even he, who was subordinate to such people as Khludov and the commander-in-chief, is involved in the general "race" of historical events, which for him personally in a foreign land acquired the grotesque form of participation in cockroach races.
Charnot lost all his remaining property, becoming an inspired frequenter of the booth, where he invariably bet Janissary on the cockroach. - in desperation, breaks off his pince-nez when the insect fails him once again, interrupting his run along the path. How Charnota rushes with his fists at the owner of the tote, how he begins to beat with pleasure in the general brawl that ensued in the booth.
If Khludov's orderly became a rider in the circus in Constantinople, General Charnota became something like a clown. He sells stupid toys from the stall, shouting invitingly: "Does not beat, does not break, but only somersaults." To a certain extent, the same can be said about him. From the balcony of the miserable hotel of Charnot, he impotently “shoots” with a revolver the hated Constantinople with its stuffy streets, minarets and bazaar, and then, mingling with the crowd, asks for alms. But he does this with evil excitement: "Give it, well ... I'm a general, I want to eat ... well, give it!"
Arriving in Paris, the former landowner and owner of the Charnot stud farm is forced to sell trousers and parade through the Latin Quarter and the Seine embankment in the same underpants. Once in the respectable house of the wealthy emigrant Paramon Korzukhin, Charnota squeezes him in her arms and kisses him passionately, with a whistle, passionately. But Korzukhin, having come to his senses and spat, declares that he will not lend money. Then Charnota offers to play cards.
The general's eyes sparkle from under the pince-nez, the figure in the underwear springs up, as if preparing to jump. The tragic farce line of Charnota, which Ulyanov confidently led, reaches its climax here. In the course of the game, the stakes are increasing, the excitement is growing, the players (Korzukhin is played by Evgeny Evstigneev) are addicted to strong drinks, the pace is growing. The satirical grotesque turns into buffoonery. The scene is built on long panoramas and a series of short medium shots, allowing you to see the growing tension in the plasticity and facial expressions of the players. At the end of it, Korzukhin, drunk in the smoke on the floor, among the bottles, tries with a frail hand to drag in his direction at least one of the huge pile of dollars won by Charnota.
Throughout the film, Ulyanov plays a hot-tempered, reckless, capable of being carried away to oblivion by some kind of tote or Charnot cards, while conveying ironic overtones by inexplicable acting means: his hero "does not beat, does not break, but only somersaults." Charnota constantly maintains a distance between the inner "I" and the forced clown mask put on.
Returning from Paris to Constantinople, Charnota does not dare to sail on a ship to Russia, which he would like more than anything in the world, and bitterly reconciles with the fate of the eternal wanderer: "Who am I now? I am an eternal Jew now! I am Ahasuerus! I am a flying Dutchman "Damn I'm a doggy!"
Only the former Privatdozent of St. Petersburg University Golubkov and Serafima Korzukhina, the wife of a greedy and cowardly Parisian rich man, whom he renounced, return to their homeland. It is she - the most defenseless and innocent victim of the historical "run" - that Golubkov, Charnot and even Khludov are trying to help throughout the entire plot. In a moment of despair, the poor and hungry Serafima comes out on the panel, but the matter ends in a tragedy: Golubkov and Charnota find a voluptuous Greek who barely had time to invite Seraphim to a coffee shop and throw him out the door. However, the line of Seraphim is dramatic only in the external course of events, the actress Lyudmila Savelyeva failed to fill the role with any intelligible emotional content.
Alexei Batalov plays Golubkov as a kind of average "Chekhov intellectual". However, he is lost in the powerful figurative element of the film.
The Privatdozent in the story was tested by too cruel circumstances: in the counterintelligence of the White Army, under the threat of torture, he broke down and wrote a denunciation of Seraphim, as a result putting the life of his beloved woman at risk. In his chivalrous attitude towards Seraphim in exile, not only nobility, but also pangs of conscience, attempts to make amends should have been seen. But these shades are hardly distinguishable in the monotonously restrained, quiet and faded Golubkov.
However, it is precisely the characters, almost devoid of character, that the authors of the film presented (which seems aesthetically not entirely justified) with a magnificent finale: Golubkov and Serafima merrily ride horses through winter forest, covered with lacy hoarfrost, and then for a long, long time across the virgin lands, until their figures dissolve in the snowy fields of Russia. It is clear that the reality of the return of Golubkov and Serafima will be different: in the country they will find devastation, hunger and will be forced to start the struggle for survival again. But it is not in vain that the finale is preceded by Golubkov's remark about both the past and the future: "But nothing happened ... it was all a dream. We will get there ... It will snow again and our tracks will be covered."
The film transforms the action from the nightmarish "dream" of the emigration into a realistically depicted reality, but again into a dream - a bright dream-dream about Russia. In a chastely clean and lofty image of the Motherland, to leave which means to lose one's dignity, lose face and betray oneself to the eternal, gnawing and unquenchable longing for the Fatherland "I will not go, I will be here in Russia. And be with her what will be" , - says one of the heroes of Bulgakov's Days of the Turbins, expressing the personal position of the author. This idea of the writer is embodied in the play "Running", and in the film of the same name by Alov Naumov - one of the best adaptations of Bulgakov's works in Russian cinema.
Michael Bulgakov
eight dreams
A play in four acts
Immortality is a quiet, bright shore;
Our path is aspiration to it.
Rest in peace, who finished his run! ..
Zhukovsky
Characters
Serafim Vladimirovna Korzukhina is a young St. Petersburg lady.
Sergei Pavlovich Golubkov is the son of an idealist professor from St. Petersburg.
Afrikaner - Archbishop of Simferopol and Karasu-Bazarsky, archpastor of an eminent army, he is also a chemist Makhrov.
P a i s i d is a monk.
Dry and hly y and h u m e n.
Baev - regiment commander in the Budyonny Cavalry.
B u d e n o v e c.
Grygoriy Lukyanovich C h a n o t a - Cossack by origin, cavalryman, major general in the White army.
Barabanchikov is a lady who exists only in the imagination of General Charnota.
Lyuska is the marching wife of General Charnota.
Krap and l and n - the messenger of Charnoty, a man who died because of his eloquence.
D e Brizar - commander of the hussar regiment of the whites.
R oman Valer'yanovich Khludov.
G o l o v a n - Yesaul, Khludov's adjutant.
Station Commander.
Starting at the station.
Nikolayevna is the wife of the head of the station.
Olka - the daughter of the head of the station, 4 years old.
Paramon Il'ich Korzukhin is the husband of Seraphim.
T and x and y - head of counterintelligence.
S kun s k i y, Gur and n - employees in counterintelligence.
WHITE CHIEF COMMANDER.
L i h i k o v k a s e.
A r t u r A r t u r o v i h - cockroach king.
Fig ures in the boiler and v n t e n d n t a n t s p o n a x
Turkish, loving mother.
P r o s t i t u t k a– b a r a s a v y c a.
G e k-d o n zhu an
Ant uan Grishchenko is Korzukhin's lackey.
Monks, white staff officers, escort co ssacks a v n o c o n m a n d u s h o , c o n t r-reconnaissance, co s za k iv burk a x, a n English, French and Italian sailors, Turkish and etc. a lannian policemen, b o ls e and greek heads in the windows, crowds in the constant field.
The first dream takes place in Northern Tavria in October 1920. Dreams the second, third and fourth - at the beginning of November 1920 in the Crimea.
The fifth and sixth - in Constantinople in the summer of 1921.
The seventh - in Paris in the autumn of 1921.
The eighth - in the autumn of 1921 in Constantinople.
Act one
Dream one
I dreamed of a monastery...
You can hear how the choir of monks in the dungeon sings muffledly: “To the Hierarch Father Nicholas, pray to God for us...”
Darkness, and then the interior of the monastery church, sparingly lit by candles stuck to the icons, appears. An unfaithful flame tears out of the darkness a desk where candles are sold, a wide bench near it, a window with bars, the chocolate face of a saint, faded wings of seraphim, golden crowns. Outside the window is a bleak October evening with rain and snow. On a bench, covered with a blanket, lies Barabanchikov. The chemist Makhrovov, in a sheepskin coat, perched at the window and still tries to see something in it ... Seraphim, in a black fur coat, sits in a high abbot's chair.
Judging by the face, Seraphim is unwell.
At Seraphim's feet, on a bench, next to the suitcase, is Golubkov, a Petersburg-looking young man in a black coat and gloves.
G o l u b k o v (listening to the singing). Do you hear, Serafima Vladimirovna? I realized they have a dungeon downstairs... In fact, how strange it all is! You know, at times it begins to seem to me that I'm dreaming, I swear! For a month now, Serafima Vladimirovna, we have been running with you, through the villages and cities, and the farther, the more incomprehensible it becomes cool ... You see, we have ended up in the church! And you know, when all this mess happened today, I missed St. Petersburg, by God! Suddenly I remembered so clearly the green lamp in the study...
S e r a f i m a. These sentiments are dangerous, Sergei Pavlovich. Beware of boredom while wandering. Wouldn't it be better for you to stay?
H o l u b k o v. Oh no, no, it's irreversible, and let it be! And then, after all, you already know what brightens up my hard way ... Since we accidentally met in a car under that lamp, remember ... after all, a little time has passed, in fact, but meanwhile it seems to me that I I've known you for a long, long time! The thought of you makes this flight easier in the autumn mist, and I will be proud and happy when I bring you to the Crimea and hand you over to your husband. And although I will be bored without you, I will rejoice in your joy.
Serafima silently puts her hand on Golubkov's shoulder.
(Stroking her hand.) Excuse me, do you have a fever?
S e r a f i m a. No, nothing.
H o l u b k o v. That is, like nonsense? Heat, by God, heat!
S e r a f i m a. Nonsense, Sergei Pavlovich, will pass...
Soft cannon punch. Barabanchikova stirred and groaned.
Listen, madame, you can't be without help. One of us will sneak into the village, there must be a midwife there.
H o l u b k o v. I'm running.
Barabanchikova silently grabs him by the hem of his coat.
S e r a f i m a. Why don't you, my dear?
B a r a b a n c h i k o v a (capriciously). No need.
Serafima and Golubkov are at a loss.
M a x r o v (quietly, to Golubkov). Mysterious and very mysterious person!
G o l u b k o v (in a whisper). Do you think that...
M a x r o v. I don’t think anything, and so ... hard times, sir, you never know who you meet on your way! Some strange lady lies in the church...
The singing underground is silent.
P a i s i d (appears silently, black, frightened). Documents, documents, prepare, honest gentlemen! (Blows out all the candles except one.)
Serafima, Golubkov and Makhrov take out documents. Barabanchikova puts her hand out and puts her passport on the blanket.
B a e c (enters, in a short fur coat, splashed with mud, excited. Behind Baev - Budenovets with a lantern). And the devil crushed them, these monks! Wow, nest! You, holy father, where is the spiral staircase to the bell tower?
P a i s i d. Here, here, here...
B a e c (Budenovets). Look.
Budenovets with a lantern disappears through an iron door.
(Paisia.) Was there a fire in the bell tower?
P a i s i d. What are you, what are you! What fire?
B a e c. The fire flickered! Well, if I find anything in the bell tower, I will put you all to the last and with your gray-haired shaitan against the wall! You waved white lanterns!
P a i s i d. God! What do you?
B a e c. And who are these? You said that in the monastery there is not a single soul of an outsider!
Dream 1. Northern Tavria, October 1920
The conversation takes place in the cell of the monastery. Budenovites came and checked the documents. The young St. Petersburg intellectual Golubkov wonders where they came from, if the whole area is in the hands of the Whites. In the cell lies a pregnant Barabanchikova, who immediately explains that the general postponed the decryption, having learned about the Reds in the rear. When asked directly about the location of General Charnota's headquarters, she answers evasively and ambiguously. Also participating in this conversation is Serafima Korzukhina, a young lady from St. Petersburg, who, together with Golubkov, flees to the Crimea to meet her husband there. She offers to call the midwife for Barabanchikova, but she, having heard the clatter of hooves and the voice of de Brizard, the white commander, throws off her rags and turns out to be General Charnota.
He tells de Brizar and his traveling wife Lyuska, who appeared immediately, that his friend Barabanchikov, instead of his documents, hastily slipped him the documents of his pregnant wife. Together they discuss the escape plan proposed by Charnota. But suddenly Seraphim develops a fever, she is ill with typhus, Golubkov takes her away. Everyone is leaving.
Dream 2. Crimea, early November 1920
The headquarters of the whites is located in the hall of the station. Where there used to be a buffet, General Khludov sits, who is clearly ill with something and is constantly twitching. Comrade Minister of Trade Korzukhin (Serafima's husband) asks Khludov to help push trains with valuable cargo to Sevastopol, but Khludov gives the order to burn them. He is annoyed and hisses that the Reds are close and will be here tomorrow. Korzukhin is going to report everything to the commander in chief. The convoy enters, followed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Whites and the Archbishop Africanus. After Khludov informs the commander-in-chief about the presence of the Bolsheviks in the Crimea, Afrikan begins to pray, but Khludov no longer believes in God. Commander-in-Chief leaves. Seraphim appears, Golubkov and a messenger from Charnota Krapilin. Seraphim is indignant that Khludov is not taking any measures, but only hangs people. The headquarters suspect that she is a communist, Golubkov, referring to typhus, says that she is delirious, and Korzukhin renounces her, fearing Khludov's wrath. Seraphim and Golubkov are taken away, and Krapilin, being in oblivion, calls Khludov a beast and says that he does not know a real war. Then, having come to his senses, he asks for mercy, but the offended Khludov orders him to be hanged.
Dream 3. Crimea, early November 1920
Golubkov is interrogated by Tikhy, the head of counterintelligence, and under pain of death forces him to reveal that Serafima is a member of the Communist Party and has come for the purpose of propaganda. Golubkov wrote a statement, he was taken away, and Tikhy and his assistant Skunsky were estimating how much they would get from Korzukhin, who wanted to pay off. Serafima is brought in, she is shown Golubkov's confession, she hears outside the window the sounds of approaching Charnota's cavalry, breaks the glass and calls for help. Charnota appears with a revolver in his hands and defends Seraphim.
Dream 4. Crimea, early November 1920
There is a serious conversation between Khludov and the commander-in-chief. Khludov honestly admits that he hates the commander-in-chief because he involved him in this business, which is obviously in vain and does not make sense. The commander-in-chief leaves, leaving him alone, and Khludov speaks to the ghost and splashes out all his anger. At this time, Golubkov arrives to complain to the commander-in-chief about Khludov and tell him about the arrest of Seraphim. Having unexpectedly met Khludov, Golubkov is in a panic, and Khludov orders the captain to deliver Seraphim to the palace if she has not yet been shot. Golubkov, furious at these words, says that he loves Seraphim, although she is just a casual acquaintance of him. Khludov continues to mock feelings young man. The captain appears and reports that Charnot recaptured Seraphim with a weapon and took him with him to Constantinople. Khludov is also expected on the ship, he is ill, continues to talk with the ghost of the orderly. Golubkov asks him to go to Constantinople. Everyone leaves.
Dream 5. Constantinople, summer 1921
One of the streets of Constantinople. Drunk Charnot tries to make a bet at the box office of cockroach races on credit, the "cockroach king" Arthur refuses him. Charnota yearns for Russia, sells her silver gas and a box of toys, and then stakes everything on the favorite of Janychar's races. People have gathered, cockroaches with paper riders are running. In the midst of the competition, it turns out that Arthur drugged the cockroach-favorite Janissary. Everyone who bet on him rushes to Arthur, and he calls the police for help. Dark.
Dream 6. Constantinople, summer 1921
There is a quarrel between Lucy and Charnota. He lies that the box and gas were stolen from him, and she, knowing that he just lost everything, admits that she is engaged in prostitution. Lyusya reproaches him that having defeated counterintelligence, Charnota fled the army, and now they are forced to exist in poverty. He objects that he saved Seraphim from death. Golubkov appears in the yard, playing the hurdy-gurdy. Charnota tells him that Serafima is alive, but went to the panel. Serafima comes with some Greek, Golubkov and Charnota drive him away. Golubkov confesses his love to Seraphim, but she leaves, not wanting to spoil his life. Lucy enters and declares that she is going to Paris. Appears in civilian clothes Khludov, he was demoted from the army. Golubkov decides to go to Paris to Korzukhin, who is simply obliged to help Seraphim. He turns to Khludov and asks to take care of her until he returns, he agrees to help and gives him 2 lira and his medallion for the journey. Charnota rides with Golubkov. They both leave. Dark.
Dream 7. Paris, autumn 1921
Golubkov asks Korzukhin to help Seraphim and lend her $1,000. Korzukhin refuses to help, saying that he has never been married, but only plans to marry his secretary. Golubkov accuses him of callousness and heartlessness. Charnota enters and invites Korzukhin to play cards for money. Before that, he sells him Khludov's medallion, then plays, wins $20,000 from Korzukhin, and buys the medallion back for $300. Korzukhin is indignant, Lucy appears at his cry. Charnota is surprised, but does not show it. Lyusya assures Korzukhin that the money cannot be returned, since he himself lost it. Golubkov and Charnota leave. At parting, Lucy quietly asks Golubkov to take care of Seraphim.
Dream 8. Constantinople, autumn 1921
