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.
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.
Forgiveness and beauty.
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 Makhrov, 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 that 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 steep ... 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 have known you for a long time -for a 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!
P a i s i d. They are refugees...
S e r a f i m a. Comrade, we were all caught in the shelling in the village, and we rushed to the monastery. (Pointing to Barabanchikova.) Here is a woman going into labor...
B a e c (approaches Barabanchikova, takes the passport, reads it). Barabanchikova, married ...
P a i s i d (Sataney from horror, whispers). Lord, Lord, just carry this! (Ready to run.) Holy Glorious Great Martyr Demetrius…
B a e c. Where is the husband?
Barabanchikova groaned.
B a e c. Found the time, the place to give birth! (Makhrov.) Document!
M a x r o v. Here is the documentary! I am a chemist from Mariupol.
B a e c. There are many of you here chemists in the front line!
M a x r o v. I went to buy groceries, cucumbers…
B a e c. Cucumbers!
B u d e n o v e c (appears suddenly). Comrade Baev! I didn’t find anything on the bell tower, but here’s what ... (Whispering in Baev's ear.)
B a e c. What are you! Where?
B u d e n o v e c. I speak true. The main thing is dark, comrade commander.
B a e c. Okay, okay, let's go. (To Golubkov, who holds out his document.) Once, once, after. (Paisia.) The monks, then, do not interfere in the civil war?
P a i s i d. No no no…
B a e c. Just pray? But who are you praying for, it would be interesting to know? For the black baron or for Soviet power? Well, see you soon, we'll figure it out tomorrow! (Leaves with Budenovets.)
A muffled command was heard outside the windows, and everything was quiet, as if nothing had happened. Paisios greedily and often crosses himself, lights candles and disappears.
M a x r o v. They were wasted… No wonder it is said: and he will give them a mark on their hands or on their foreheads… Five-pointed stars, have you noticed?
G o l u b k o v (in a whisper, to Seraphim). I am completely at a loss, because this area is in the hands of the whites, where did the reds come from? A sudden fight?.. Why did all this happen?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. This is because General Krapchikov is an ass, not a general! (Seraphim.) Sorry, ma'am.
G o l u b k o v (mechanically). Well?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. Well - well? They sent him a dispatch that the red cavalry was in the rear, and he, hurting his soul, put off deciphering until morning and sat down to play screw.
H o l u b k o v. Well?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. The small one in hearts announced.
M a x r o v (quiet). Wow, what an interesting person!
H o l u b k o v. Excuse me, you, apparently, are aware of the matter: I had information that here, in Kurchulan, the headquarters of General Charnota was supposed to be ...
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. Here are your details! Well, there was a headquarters, how not to be. He just came out.
H o l u b k o v. And where did he go?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. Quite definitely - in the swamp.
M a x r o v. How do you know all this, ma'am?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. You, archpastor, are very curious!
M a x r o v. Excuse me, why do you call me archpastor?
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. Okay, okay, this is a boring conversation, get away from me.
Paisius runs in, again extinguishes the candles, all but one, looks out the window.
H o l u b k o v. What else?
P a i s i d. Oh, sir, we ourselves do not know whom else the Lord has sent us and whether we will be alive by night! (Disappears so that it looks like he is falling through the ground.)
There was a hoofed clatter, and flames danced in the window.
S e r a f i m a. Fire?
H o l u b k o v. No, they are torches. I don't understand anything, Serafima Vladimirovna! White troops, I swear, white! It's done! Serafima Vladimirovna, thank God, we are again in the hands of the whites! Officers in uniform!
B a r a b a n c h i k o v a (sits down, wrapping himself in a blanket). You damned intellectual, shut up instantly! "Shoulder straps", "shoulder straps"! This is not Petersburg, but Tavria, an insidious country! If you put shoulder straps on you, this does not mean that you have become white! And if the squad is disguised? What then?
Suddenly a bell chimed softly.
Well, they called! Monks-idiots fell asleep! (Golubkov.) What pants do they have on?
H o l u b k o v. Red ones! .. And they drove in, those are blue with red sides ...
B a r a b a n ch i k o v a. "We drove in with the sides"! .. Damn you! With lamps?
De Brizard's muffled command was heard: "First squadron, get down!"
What's happened! Can't be? His voice! (Golubkov.) Well, now shout, now boldly shout, I allow! (He throws off his blanket and rags and jumps out in the form of General Charnota. He is in a Circassian coat with crumpled silver shoulder straps. He puts the revolver that he had in his hands into his pocket, runs up to the window, throws it open, shouts.) Hello geezers! Hello Dons! Colonel Brizar, come to me!
The door opens, and Lyuska is the first to run in, in a scarf of a sister of mercy, in a leather jacket and high boots with spurs. Behind her is the bearded de Brizarivest Krapilin with a torch.
L yu s k a. Grisha! Gri-gri! (Throws herself on Charnot's neck.) I don't believe my eyes! Alive? Saved? (Screams out the window.) Hussars, listen, General Charnot was recaptured from the Reds!
Outside the window noise and screams.
L yu s k a. After all, we were going to serve a memorial service for you!
C a r n o t a. I saw death as close as your scarf. I went to the headquarters to Krapchikov, and he put me, a bitch, into the screw to play ... a small one in hearts ... and n A machine guns for you! Budyonny is on you, from heaven! They completely killed the headquarters! I shot back, out the window and gardens in the village to the teacher Barabanchikov, come on, I say, documents! And he, in a panic, took it, but he thrust the wrong documents to me! I crawl here, to the monastery, and lo and behold, the documents are women's, the wife's - Madame Barabanchikova, and the certificate - pregnant! Cool red ones, well, I say, put me as I am in the church! I lie, give birth, hear, with spurs - slap, slap! ..
L yu s k a. Who?
C a r n o t a. Budenov commander.
L yu s k a. Oh!
C a r n o t a. I think, where are you, Budyonovets, slapping? After all, your death lies under a blanket! Well, lift it up, lift it up! They will bury you with music! And he took the passport, but did not lift the blanket!
Lucy screams.
(Running out, screaming at the door.) Hello Cossack tribe! Hello, workers!
There were screams. Luska runs out after Charnota.
D e B r i z a r. Well, I'll raise my blanket! If I weren’t a maroon devil, if I didn’t hang someone in the monastery for joy! These, apparently, the Reds in a hurry forgot! (Makhrov.) Well, you don't even need to ask for a document. You can see by the hair what a bird! Krapilin, shine here!
P a i s i d (flies in). What are you, what are you? This is his Eminence! This is His Eminence African!
D e B r i z a r. What are you, black-tailed Satan, talking about?
Makhrov takes off his hat and sheepskin coat.
(Looks into Mahrov's face.) What's happened? Your Eminence, is it really you?! How did you get here?
A f r i k a n. I came to Kurchulan to bless the Don corps, and the Reds captured me during the raid. Thank you, the monks supplied the documents.
D e B r i z a r. The devil knows what it is! (Seraphim.) Woman, document!
S e r a f i m a. I am the wife of a fellow minister of commerce. I'm stuck in St. Petersburg, and my husband is already in the Crimea. I run to him. Here are fake documents, and here is a real passport. My surname is Korzukhina.
D e B r i z a r. Mille excuses, madam! 1
A thousand pardons, madam! (French)
And you, a caterpillar in civilian clothes, aren't you the chief prosecutor?
H o l u b k o v. I'm not a caterpillar, sorry, and by no means a chief prosecutor! I am the son of the famous idealistic professor Golubkov and myself a Privatdozent, I am running from Petersburg to you, to the whites, because it is impossible to work in Petersburg.
D e B r i z a r. Very nice. Noah's Ark!
A wrought-iron hatch in the floor opens, and a decrepit Igumen rises out of it, followed by a choir monk with candles.
I hum e n (African). Your Eminence! (Monks.) Brethren! We were honored to save and preserve the lord from the hands of the wicked socialists!
The monks clothe the agitated African in a mantle, give him a rod.
Lord. Take this rod again, with it you affirm the flock ...
A f r i k a n. Look from heaven, O God, and see and visit this vineyard, plant it with your right hand!
M o n a x i (suddenly singing). ??? ???????? ????????!2
Greek prayer. "For all ages, lord!"
Charnot grows in the doorway, with him - Lyuska.
C a r n o t a. Why are you, holy fathers, overeating henbane, or what? This ceremony was not started at the right time! Come on, choir! (Shows a gesture - "leave")
A f r i k a n. Brethren! Come out!
The abbot and the monks go into the ground.
C a r n o t a (to Africa). Your Eminence, why are you arranging a divine service here? You have to stomp! The Corps is on our heels, they are catching us! Budyonny will strangle us to the sea! The whole army is leaving! Let's go to Crimea! To Roman Khludov under the wing!
A f r i k a n. Omnipotent Lord, what is this? (Grabs his coat.) Do you have two-wheelers with you? (Disappears.)
C a r n o t a. Card for me! Shine, Krapilin! (Looks at the map.) Everything is locked! Coffin!
L yu s k a. Oh, you, Krapchikov, Krapchikov!
C a r n o t a. Stop! Found the hole! (De Brizar.) Take your regiment and go to Almanayka. If you pull them a little on yourself, then to Babi Gai and cross at least a sip! After you, I will go to the Molokans on farms, with the Don people, and even later than you, but I will go out to the Arabat arrow, we will unite there. Come out in five minutes!
D e B r i z a r. I'm listening, Your Excellency.
C a r n o t a. F-fu!.. Give me a sip, Colonel.
H o l u b k o v. Serafima Vladimirovna, do you hear? The whites are leaving. We must run with them, otherwise we will again fall into the hands of the Reds. Serafima Vladimirovna, why don't you answer, what's the matter with you?
L yu s k a. Give me too.
De Brizard gives a flask to Luska.
G o l u b k o v (Charnote). General, I beg you, take us with you! Serafima Vladimirovna fell ill... We are running to the Crimea... Do you have an infirmary with you?
C a r n o t a. Did you study at the university?
H o l u b k o v. Of course yes…
C a r n o t a. Give the impression of a completely uneducated person. Well, if a bullet hits you in the head on Babi Gai, the infirmary will help you a lot, right? You should also ask if we have an x-ray room. Intelligentsia!.. Give me some more cognac!
L yu s k a. Need to take. Beautiful woman, red will get.
H o l u b k o v. Serafima Vladimirovna, get up! Must go!
S e r a f i m a (muffled). You know what, Sergei Pavlovich, I really don't feel well... You go alone, and I'll lie down here in the monastery... I feel a bit hot...
H o l u b k o v. My God! Serafima Vladimirovna, this is unthinkable! Serafima Vladimirovna, get up!
S e r a f i m a. I'm thirsty... and to St. Petersburg...
H o l u b k o v. What is it?..
L yu s k a (victorious). It's typhoid, that's what it is.
D e B r i z a r. Madame, you must run, you will have a bad time with the Reds. However, I'm not a master of speaking. Krapilin, you are eloquent, persuade the lady!
K r a p i l and n. That's right, you have to go.
H o l u b k o v. Serafima Vladimirovna, we must go...
D e B r i z a r. Krapilin, you are eloquent, persuade the lady!
K r a p i l and n. That's right, you have to go!
D e B r i z a r (looked at the watch bracelet). It's time! (Runs out.)
His command was heard: “Sit down!” - then stomp.
L yu s k a. Krapilin! Raise it, take it by force!
K r a p i l and n. I obey! (Together with Golubkov they raise Seraphim, lead him by the arms.)
L yu s k a. In her gig!
C a r n o t a (one, finishes his cognac, looks at his watch). It's time.
I hum e n (grows out of the hatch). White General! Where are you? Surely you will not defend the monastery that gave you shelter and salvation?!
C a r n o t a. What are you, daddy, upsetting me? Tie up the tongues of the bells, sit down in the dungeon! Goodbye! (Disappears.)
He heard his cry: “Sit down! Sit down! - then a terrible clatter, and everything is silent. Paisius appears from the hatch.
P a i s i d. Father hegumen! And Father Abbot! What are we to do? After all, the red ones will jump now! And we called whites! What are we to accept a martyr's crown?
And Mr. And where is the lord?
P a i s i d. Rode, galloped in a gig!
And Mr. Shepherd, unworthy shepherd! .. Who left his own sheep! (Screams muffledly in the dungeon.) Brethren! Pray!
From under the ground it was muffledly heard: “Prelate Father Nicholas, pray to God for us…”. Darkness eats the monastery. The first dream ends.
Second dream
... My dreams are getting heavier ...
A hall appears at an unknown and large station somewhere in the northern part of the Crimea. There are windows of unusual size in the background of the hall, behind them one can feel the black night with blue electric moons.
There was a brutal, incomprehensible frost in early November in the Crimea. Forged Sivash, Chongar, Perekop and this station. The windows are iced over, and from time to time serpentine fiery reflections from passing trains flow across the icy mirrors. Portable black iron stoves and kerosene lamps on the tables are burning. In the depths, above the exit to the main platform, the inscription old spelling: "Operational separation". A glass partition, in it is a green lamp of the official type and two green, like the eyes of monsters, the fire of the conductor's lanterns. Nearby, against a dark peeling background, a white youth on horseback strikes a scaly dragon with a spear. This young man is George the Victorious, and a faceted multi-colored lamp is burning in front of him. The hall is occupied by white staff officers. Most of them are wearing caps and headphones. Countless field telephones, staff maps with flags, typewriters in the back. Multi-colored signals flash on the phones, the phones sing with gentle voices.
The front headquarters has been standing at this station for the third day and does not sleep for the third day, but works like a machine. And only an experienced and observant eye could see the restless patina in the eyes of all these people. And one more thing - fear and hope can be discerned in those eyes when they turn to where there was once a first-class buffet.
There, separated from everyone by a high cupboard, at the desk, huddled on a high stool, sits Roman Valeryanovich Khludov. This man's face is white as bone, his hair is black, combed in an eternal indestructible officer's parting. Khludov's snub nose, like Pavel, is shaved like an actor, seems younger than everyone around him, but his eyes are old. He is wearing a soldier's overcoat, he is belted with a belt around it, not like a woman's, not like the landowners belted their dressing gown. Shoulder straps are cloth, and a black general's zigzag is casually sewn on them. A protective cap, dirty, with a dull cockade, mittens on his hands. There are no weapons on Khludov.
He is sick with something, this man is sick all over, from head to toe. He frowns, twitches, likes to change intonations. He asks himself questions and likes to answer them himself. When he wants to portray a smile, he grins.
He arouses fear. He is sick - Roman Valeryanovich.
Near Khludov, in front of a table on which there are several telephones, the executive captain Golovan, who is in love with Khludov, sits and writes.
H l u d o v (dictating to Golovan). "…Comma. But Frunze did not want to portray the designated enemy during the maneuvers. Dot. This is not chess and not Tsarskoye unforgettable Selo. Dot. Signature - Khludov. Dot".
H o l o v a n (gives it to someone). Encrypt, send to the commander in chief.
F irst headquarters (lighted by a signal from the phone, groans into the phone). Yes, I’m listening… I’m listening… Budyonny?.. Budyonny?..
Second stab (groans into phone). Taganash... Taganash...
th ird (groans into phone). No, on Karpov Balka...
H o l o v a n (Lighting up with a signal, he gives Khludov's pipe). Your Excellency…
Here is an excerpt from the book.
Only part of the text is open for free reading (restriction of the copyright holder). If you liked the book, the full text can be obtained from our partner's website.
pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Operator - L. Paatashvili
Mosfilm, 1970
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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.
Alexander Karaganov
"Running" is a play written by M. Bulgakov in 1926-1927. Many performances were created based on this play, which, unfortunately, were staged after the death of the author, because Stalin banned all rehearsals.
The first performance took place in 1957 at the Stalingrad Theatre. But in 1970, the magnificent film "Running" directed by A. Alov was shot and the plot touches on the time of the Civil War after October revolution, where the rest are desperately resisting and fighting the Reds on the Crimean Isthmus.
"Running" is a play, which, according to the author's idea, consists of four acts and eight dreams. Why sleep? Because a dream is a dramatic convention, representing something unreal and implausible, which is very difficult to believe. Thus, the author himself expressed his attitude to what was happening then with Russia: everything is like a nightmare.
The fate of the Russian intelligentsia
Based on the memoirs of his second wife L. E. Belozerskaya about emigration, Bulgakov wrote his "Running". An analysis of the biography of this woman shows that at that time she fled with her first husband to Constantinople, and then lived in Paris, Marseille and Berlin. The writer also used memories white general Ya. A. Slashcheva.
Mikhail Bulgakov devoted "Running" to the fate that he considered the best layer of Russia. She was forced to leave the country and live in exile. The writer tried to tell that the majority of emigrants wanted to live in Russia, but they had to find a consensus with the Bolsheviks and even refuse to fight them, but without sacrificing moral principles. Classic even wrote a letter about this to Stalin himself. He wanted to show that he was above the whites and reds, but in the end he was considered an enemy White Guard. Therefore, the publication of "The White Guard" did not happen during the life of the writer, just as "Running" did not see the scene. Bulgakov was able to stage the play "Days of the Turbins" only after a two-year ban, when he received a personal order from Stalin.
"Run". Bulgakov. Summary
So, October 1920. Northern Tavria. There is a fight between reds and whites. The young St. Petersburg intellectual Golubkov is hiding from stray bullets and grenades in the porch of the monastery with Seraphim Korzukhina, a lady from St. Petersburg. Together with him, she flees to the Crimea to meet her husband there. Golubkov wonders where the Reds come from in this area, because it was all in the hands of the Whites.
Then a detachment of Budyonny's cavalry drove into the monastery to check people's documents. Priests and monks prayed in front of the images, there were many other people in the church, among them was the pregnant Baranbanchikova, who suddenly began to have contractions. When the Reds left the monastery, they were followed by soldiers led by the white commander De Brizar and Lyuska, the marching wife of General Charnota. As it turned out later, General Charnota himself was hiding in the image of a pregnant lady, who, having heard his voices, could not be expressed in words how delighted he was. He hugged them all and began to tell how, instead of fake documents, his friend Barabanchikov in a hurry mixed everything up and slipped him the documents of his pregnant wife.
Now they all begin to discuss the escape plan proposed by Charnota. But soon it turns out that Seraphim has typhus, and Golubkov does not leave her. Everyone is leaving.
Khludov
November 1920, Crimea. The headquarters of the White Guards is located in the station hall. The buffet has become command post General Khludov. He is constantly twitching and obviously sick with something. Here appears the husband of Seraphim, Korzukhin, Deputy Minister of Trade, and asks Khludov to help send trains with smuggled goods to Sevastopol. But he orders everything to be burned. Serafima, Golubkov and Krapilin, the messenger of Charnota, appear. Seraphim attacks Khludov, that he would only hang people, but she is immediately mistaken for a communist. Seeing her husband, Serafima rushes to him, but he pretends not to know her, fearing the reaction of the general.
In this episode, Bulgakov fills his "Running" with yet another tragedy. Summary continues with the fact that the guard Krapilin, being in a wild trance from everything that is happening around, also accuses Khludov of atrocities, and then, recovering himself, kneels before him, but the general orders him to be hanged.
Arrest
Golubkov gets interrogated by the counterintelligence chief Tichy, who forces him to sign a document stating that Serafima is a communist. Tichiy and his partner want to make money by blackmailing her husband Korzukhin.
During the interrogation, Serafima sees Golubkov's testimony, knocks out the office window and calls for help. Under the windows at that time was the cavalry of Charnota, who appeared with a revolver and freed Seraphim.
Meanwhile, Khludov is having a conversation with the commander-in-chief, whom he hates because he involved him in a senseless affair. After all clarifications, they part. Khludov has a mental disorder, he constantly sees the ghost of the fighter Krapilin hanged by him. But then Golubkov enters, who is in a panic because of the arrest of Serafima and wants the general to help free her. Khludov orders his adjutant, Yesaul Golovan, to deliver Seraphim to him and immediately adds that she may have already been shot. He returns after a while and reports that she is with Charnota, who took her to Constantinople. Khludov is also expected on the ship. The ghost of the messenger periodically comes to him. Golubkov begs him to take him with him to find Seraphim.
Emigration
Summer 1921, Constantinople. Bulgakov does not end the play "Running" on this. The summary further tells how, on one of the streets of Constantinople, a drunken and penniless Charnota wants to bet on credit in a cockroach race. Artur Arturovich, nicknamed the Cockroach Tsar, refuses him. Charnota yearns for Russia, he sells toys and silver gas in the street. As a result, he puts everything on the main favorite, the cockroach Yanychar. In the midst of the competition, it turns out that Arthur drugged the Janissary. A fight started.
Lucy and Charnota
Charnota returns home and quarrels with Lucy, because he lies to her that the box with toys and gas was stolen from him. She understands that on the run he lost the last. Seraphim lives with them. Lyuska admits to him that she is forced to engage in prostitution due to the fact that they have nothing to eat and nothing to pay for the room. She reproaches him for the fact that he defeated the counterintelligence headquarters, then fled the army and now they live in poverty far from Russia. Charnota, on the other hand, constantly objected and justified himself by saving Seraphim. And then suddenly Lucy declares that she is leaving with a French acquaintance for Paris. Seraphim, having heard all this conversation, decides not to sit on anyone's neck anymore, but also go to earn money on the panel.
On the same day, Charnota meets Golubkov on the street, playing the hurdy-gurdy. He is looking for Seraphim, who has already found a Greek client and goes with him to the room. Behind them, Charnota and Golubkov run in and chase the Greek away. Golubkov confesses his love to Seraphim, but she refuses him, because she does not want to spoil his life.
Khludov appears here. He was demoted from the army, and now he is instructed to look after Seraphim. He gives Golubkov a medallion and two lire because he is going to Paris to ask Korzukhin, who has a sick wife, for money. Charnota decides to go with him.
Korzukhin
Autumn 1921, Paris. Golubkov appears on the threshold of Korzukhin's apartment and asks him to lend him a thousand dollars. But he assures that he has no wife, and refuses to give money. In addition, he states that he wants to marry his secretary. Golubkov accuses him of heartlessness. However, here Charnota intervenes and, seeing Korzukhin's cards on the table, invites him to play and puts Khludov's medallion. As a result, he wins 20 thousand dollars from Korzukhin and buys the medallion back from him for 300 dollars.
Korzukhin is drunk and beside himself with rage, he screams and demands the police. The climax is coming. The secretary runs out of the room to scream (it turned out to be Lyuska). She, realizing what was the matter and seeing Charnota, tells Korzukhin that they can no longer return the money, since they have been lost. In parting, she asks Golubkov to take care of Seraphim.
It should be noted that "Running" (Bulgakov's work) tells about each hero with extraordinary touchingness and understanding.
Seraphim
In Constantinople, Khludov is still in a mental disorder and often communicates with the ghost of the orderly. Serafima enters and confesses to him that she is ready to accept Khludov's offer and return with him to St. Petersburg. Khludov says that he will also return to Russia, even under his own name. Here the long-awaited and already rich Golubkov and Charnota appear. The latter understands that he no longer wants to fight with the Bolsheviks and he has no hatred for them, so he stays and runs to the Tarakan Tsar Arthur.
denouement
Serafima and Khludov return to their homeland. Khludov remains alone in the room and, going to the window, shoots himself.
This is how Bulgakov ended his tragic play "Running". Its summary is just a small part of all the events, so it is better to read the play in the original. And for a better representation of all the events experienced by the Russian intelligentsia and the Russian people in general, it is advisable to watch this play, because it is best to watch plays, and not read them. However, if there is no such possibility, the excellent film “Running” (1970) will tell about everything best of all.
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!
