Evsey, Muravyov-Apostol, Alexander the First, Muravyov, Trubetskoy

- Leave him. Victory!

Saint Petersburg, theatre, 1820

Ann Belskaya, Muravyov-Apostol, Belskaya the mother, officer

- I don’t believe you! This can’t be true.

- And because of that it is the sheer truth. I almost got kicked out of the Guard. They forbid me to run after the Emperor with champagne! The soldiers on the sentry will be ordered to shoot if they see me near to the Winter Palace with a bottle!

- Ann, you are disturbing me from watching the play!

- Dear mother, the scene is there, not here.

- The scene is everywhere.

Count Miloradovich, the General-Governor of Saint Petersburg.

- What was it that saved you?

- My insanity was thought to be because of the air in Paris. It’s commonly known to have frivolities spilled in it. But the northern wind of my homeland cooled me down.

- So, were you insane or sincere?

- I was happy, and the sincerity is the insanity.

- And did Napoleon really say that he would like his son to be like you?

- I wouldn't like to have him as a father. He needed the whole world - and I want more. I love you.

- How flexible she is… Is it true she is Circassian?

- Gentlemen, it’s urgent for you to arrive at the regiment now.

- I’m sorry, but I’m forced to leave you alone.

Barracks of the Life Guard of the Semyonovsky regiment.

Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, officer

- Wait! Stop. I said stop!

- Stop, stop!

- Sergey…

- What is it?

- The regiment is rioting.

- What?

- The soldiers want to kill Schwartz. They pushed all the officers out and will not let anybody in unless the complaint on Schwartz is accepted.

Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, subensign of the Semyonovsky regiment

- I tried to speak to them, it’s impossible!

- We have called for the Horse Guards, gentlemen, they will put things into order.

- We are the guard and we are the order!

- Are you? Are these your soldiers rioting there behind the wall? Wait for the horse guards.

- Sergey, wait!

- Sergey Ivanovich!

Soldiers of the Semyonovsky regiment, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Muravyov-Apostol

- Come out to align! (throwing a stone into the window)

- Come out, Your Excellency!

- Serge, Serge! Let’s go.

- Come on, go, go, go!

- Bestuzhev! The porch!

- Stop this! What are you doing? Belay, everyone, belay, I said! Let me through! Belay! I said belay!

- What do you think you’re doing? You are rioting! What do you want?

- We want to flog Schwartz!

- The chevalier of the Georgian cross!

- Belay, everyone! I said, belay! You, all of you, are the soldiers of the Guard, not the drunk folk in the streets!

- Could you speak a bit more quiet, Your Excellency?

- Belay, I said! An officer is standing in front of you!

- Is it true, Boychenko?

- At the forming-up, I didn’t have time to do up my pants after the bog. I’ve been serving for 15 years! I fought Bonaparte! And that’s what I got!

- Calm down! Quiet!

- No! No. The Emperor serves in our regiment. Let’s let him know what is happening in here. Remember how you went to the baths through the city, without the officers?

- Yes, yes, we do!

- So, line up in companies and march to the fortress! Let the whole city, the whole garrison, let the Emperor himself know that you came to be judged by your own will and didn’t kill your commander!

- So maybe you could lead us then, Your Excellency?

- No, pals, no. Do it by yourselves. Otherwise I’m getting a medal and you stay the same rebels as you were.

The Grand Duke Nikolay, Count Miloradovich

- Your Excellency, Count Miloradovich.

- Your Highness.

- Have the instigators of the riot been revealed?

- It is not a riot, but a misunderstanding. The soldiers have accepted being guilty and go under arrest by themselves. The officers who calmed them down are preparing a report for the Emperor.

Nikolay Pavlovich, The Grand Duke

- Report to the Emperor that, thank God, everything is alright.

Alexey Orlov, the commander of the Horse Guard

- Let’s leave the decision of was it alright or not to the Emperor.

Russia had victory over Napoleon and became the first power in the world for a couple of decades. But inside the country the wish for changes grew more and more - wished by Alexander as well. The acceptance of the Constitution, setting serfs free, twenty five years of serving abolition, the reform of the court.

Then appeared tens of societies which main aim was to reform Russia. Most of them were secret. In Saint-Petersburg a group of Guard officers formed one and named it “The Union of Salvation”.

Kondratiy Feodorovich Ryleyev, Prince Sergey Petrovich Trubetskoy, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Colonel Pavel Pestel, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol

- Oops! So… wait a second, Mister Pestel. And now, who can drink this glass with one hand behind their back?

Sergey Trubetskoy, Сaptain of the Semyonovsky regiment

- If I were you, I wouldn’t have standed up for Schwartz.

- Kondratiy Feodorovich, please!

- I think I’ll pass.

- (in response to Trubetskoy) Schwartz is in truth a bad of a commander, but he is still a human. I can’t understand you. (to Bestuzhev) And how come the wine doesn’t spill?

- Magic. Sorcery.

- If the soldiers in our regiment killed a commander, maybe it would have made the Emperor think and he would have started doing something.

Pavel Pestel, the adjutant of the Second army’s commander

- Maybe you should pour the wine into the dish, but that takes even more than three hands…

- You’re far from the solution, Mister Pestel, so far.

- (in response to Muravyov-Apostol) And now because of your prowess everything’s alright, an he can continue calmly rolling all around Europe and taking parades.

- What, no one else wants to try?

- (in response to Trubetskoy) Maybe it’s good you weren’t there then.

- I’d rather watch it from the distance.

- I’ve got nothing on my mind, to be honest.

- Gentlemen… (solving the riddle)

- You are a sort of a magician.

- Hold it, go, go, go.

- Now, that’s lovely.

- Bravo!

- Seryozha, how did you know? Have I already shown you this?

- It was me who showed this trick, you’ve forgotten it!

- Mister Ryleyev, I’d be grateful if you could present me this plate.

Kondratiy Ryleyev, a poet and a journalist.

- Well, of course, take it, but why, Pavel Ivanovich?

- Why? For this. (taps the bottom of the plate)

- You’re interested in imperial porcelain, aren’t you, Pavel Ivanovich?

- That’s a fading epoche.

- But that’s true. If the soldiers of our regiment or any other open up the doors of the armory, imagine what will happen, gentlemen, just imagine! All the European revolutions will seem to be a Christmas day feast.

- So let it be! Then it will be the same as in France, although I would prefer it to be more United States-like.

- In France, the aristocrats were being hung on lanterns. If it would be like in France, everybody in this room will be dead.

- We’ll see, Prince…

- That’s why in Russia the aristocrats need to make the revolution a short and unbloody one.

- But it’s still a revolution.

- Mister Ryleyev, a military revolution.

- In the South you have turned into a true Jacobin, Pavel Ivanovich. You were planning to save Russia, and now what? You want a revolution.

- Well, it is the salvation itself! To cut the top with one punch and take the power. (beats a plate) For luck!

- The Union of Salvation, gentlemen.

- Yeah.

The Winter Palace. Count Miloradovich, The Grand Duke Nikolay, Muravyov-Apostol, Trubetskoy

- (Miloradovich walks in) We, Alexander the First, the Emperor and the Autocrat of Russia etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, order: colonel Schwartz, Fyodor Efimovich, for his disability to keep the regiment which he commanded to obedience, to be sentenced to death; for the treason of the oath and the violation of the military regulations, Semyonovsky regiment of the Life Guard to be disbanded; all the officers to be discharged from the guard and to be sent to the military units of the First and Second armies in Malorossiya without the right of the leave and retirement; Captain Trubetskoy to be left in the guard and to be given secondment to the General base, for, during the criminal events, he was absent from the regiment; regarding the prior excellent serving of colonel Schwartz, the death penalty to be replaced with retirement without the preservation of the maintenance. His Majesty, The Emperor of Russia, signed it himself.

- (as Schwartz falls) Fyodor Efimovich…

- Help him.

- Gentlemen… Fyodor Efimovich…

- Your Excellency, Mikhail Andreevich, the punishment is excessive. The soldiers repented. Talk with the Emperor.

- I’m sorry, Sergey Ivanovich.

- The Emperor serves in your regiment. How can he trust you from now on? Lawlessness cannot be justified.

- And by what law were we punished?

- The supreme will is the law. At least accept your fate with honour.

Five years passed. The society divided into a Northern and Southern one.

Ukraine, Kiev Province, 1825

Pavel Pestel, Muravyov-Apostol, Alexander the Emperor, Count Miloradovich, Lieutenant-Colonel Gebel, Nikolay

- Our country’s huge, and the folk’s low-browed. We’ll have to break them, or we’ll be the ones who are broken. Everywhere and always, it’s the minority who decide for the majority. The main thing now is the first punch.

Artamon Muravyov, Colonel, the commander of Ahtirski hussars.

- It should be and must be struck from here.

Arkadiy Maiboroda, captain of the Vyatsky regiment.

- There’s enough strength. The members of our society in Saint-Petersburg assume they will be ready to start in a year or year-and-a-half time. But we should start now. It would be easier for them to decide and move towards us. During all his reign His Majesty hasn’t missed one review. He won’t miss this one too. All of the army’s officership will be with him that day. And somebody of the Grand Dukes, too.

- Attack! Forward! Align!

- The second platoon, column left, march!

- What is this manoeuvre?

- Lieutenant-Colonel Gebel, these are your Chernigov boys.

- The way!

- The way!

- Lieutenant Colonel Muravyov!

- Forward, march!

- We need to go, please, go away, please.

- Please, follow me.

- Take away the Emperor!

- Belay! Aback! Lieutenant Colonel, stop the soldiers. Aback!

- Align! Aim! Fall in! Halt!

- (coming into a tent) Please.

- Gentlemen! You are under arrest.

- Colonel, is this a revolt?

- No, sir. It’s a revolution.

- Who’s that?

- Traitors…

- If the Emperor stays alive, he will be protected by millions of nobles, soldiers, the rabble. Then we won’t be the winners. The murderer of the Emperor ought to be annihilated the same moment. He will know about it and he will be ready to sacrifice himself for the benefit of our business. The retinue will be arrested for the allowance of the attempt on the Emperor. After this, units loyal to us will move towards the capital, carrying away all the others.

Muravyov-Apostol, Pestel, Artamon Muravyov

- But your plan has a flaw.

- Which flaw?

- How many people will you kill on your way to liberty?

- As many as needed. And you?

- Yeah…

- You are afraid to get dirty. Well, I’ll make it without you then.

- Without my Chernigovians, Ahtirski hussars and the Poltavsky regiment? It’s up to you.

- I can’t understand what you have to a greater extent - naivety or pride. Do you want to win or to become a hero?

- I want to win as a hero.

- Didn’t come to an agreement. Now they’ll order to wait. Years are passing by, I have three kids, I’m a Colonel, and I’m still sick with these hopes.

Ukraine, Tulchin, headquarters of the Second army.

Pestel, Alexey Yushnevskiy

- Is Muravyov still waiting for a signal from the capital?

- Yes, as if in case the affair is started by Trubetskoy, the Emperor will be left alive and breathing. Anyway, I’ve known Muravyov for a long time. If we start without him, he’ll definitely follow us. As well as Trubetskoy. They’ll fear to be notoriously known as traitors. Is this what I think it is?

- You’ll see.

- The road to Saint-Petersburg is open. The supplies of the Second army are ours. But how?

- The drought. The prices for fodder and food are extremely high.

Alexey Yushnevskiy, the General-Intendant of the Second army.

- Here, in Malorossia, we have everything in excess. I suggested saving state money and buying what they needed here, arranging a storage - also here. Far from the borders and closer to the capital.

- Along the Rzhev road. You are in truth a magician.

- I’m just the army’s financier. And that’s why I’m asking you to close the shortage of the lease in your regiment. Checks are being done. It would be stupid if all our plans go down the drain because of a small detail .

Captain Maiboroda, Pestel

- Your Excellency…

- Sit down, Mister Maiboroda. You, captain, have a debt. You’ve crossed all the deadlines.

- I have. But what must I do if I’ve got nothing?

- Look for it. And for now, write a receipt - please.

- What receipt?

- Stating that you have taken six thousand and four hundred rubles from the officer counter for your own needs.

- Well, I haven’t taken it.

- Well, I have. To cover your spendings, of course.

- Then you should write it.

- What?

- Of course, the money is state, but I’ve made much more for our business. A sort of… payment for the risks. And for it not to cause any troubles, maybe we could think something up?

- Don’t worry about it, we could make up a story.

- Pavel Ivanovich, this sum of money isn’t worthy of our quarrelling.

- (taking out a pistol) You don’t want to quarrel with me.

- I’ll give it back, Pavel Ivanovich. I’m telling you the truth, I swear. I have no money at the moment.

- Write the damn receipt, captain.

- Okay. I will, don’t worry. Don’t worry.

- Thank you.

Tsarskoye Selo.

Ivan Dibich, Alexander

- All the listed conspirators serve in Malorossia, in the First and Second armies.

Alexander the First, the Emperor.

- Would you like to order to cancel the Supreme Review?

Ivan Dibich, the head of the headquarters.

- Or at least to reschedule it until the investigation is over?

- The investigation? Why? It’s already clear infantry captain Maiboroda wrote the truth. Mister Pestel and his friends wish the best for their Motherland. The Constitution, the elected Parliament, liberty for the tillers… I want all of this myself.

- They are thinking of taking you as a hostage or even killing you. Your Majesty…

- I’ll figure it out by myself. Leave it unnoticed.

Colonel Amfelt, Dibich

- And what did the Emperor say?

- Do you get heartburn when you eat lard?

- Unfortunately, I haven’t got a chance to know, Your Excellency.

- Well, now you’ve got one. You’re going to Kiev. Yeah...

Kiev province.

Colonel Amfelt, Shcherbatov, Bestuzhev

- Aim! Fire!

- Forward!

Alexey Scherbatov, general, commander of the Forth infantry corps.

- Let me introduce Colonel Amfelt to you. He has arrived from Saint-Petersburg with a special mission from the minister of war, general Dibich.

- Gentlemen, you have been preparing for a year or so, I know, however, His Majesty the Emperor cancelled the Supreme Review. That’s all what I wanted to tell you. I assume, you understand why you were the first to hear the news.

- I’m no Amfelt and I won’t beat around the bush. According to the Russian laws, for what you’ve thought of doing you must be quartered. You better come back to your units. The history is being written in Saint-Petersburg, and it only dies here.

- After me, forward, march!

Ann Belskaya appears.

Tsarskoye Selo.

Alexander, Nikolay, senator Mordvinov

- Ask him to come to me.

Mordvinov bows and comes next to Nikolay.

- I’ve been ruling for twenty five years and I couldn’t remake the cantons of Switzerland here in Russia. Everyone wants liberty, but nobody wants to pay for it. Remember that. This is my will. You will become the Emperor after me. And you will continue what I began. You will do what I didn’t.

- Why me, and not Konstantin? By the law, the throne goes to the eldest of the brothers.

- My will is the law. And Konstantin… Konstantin will renounce.

- I am unloved. The Guard is for Konstantin.

- The Guard is for the Emperor. But this isn’t going to happen tomorrow. We’ll be prepared. My wife is ill. I’m departing to Taganrog. The doctors hope the climate there will help her. I will return only God knows when and announce my decision to the Senate.

Kiev province. The Shcherbatov’s house

Scherbatov, Belskaya the mother, Belskaya the daughter, servant

- The capital - considering all my love towards it - is still rather an artificial and unnatural thing. Frankly, here everything is much easier. People live in harmony with nature. I’m starting to find pleasure in such simple life and society.

- What’s left for you anyway, brother? You got sent here, and now you’re playing Russo, but in truth you are an Aesop’s fox. Saint-Petersburg’s flaw is its distance. And I’m counting days until we leave from here.

- Your Excellency, this was left on our porch. With a note.

- Dear Uncle, let me do it for you.

- What is it?

- (smiling) It only says: “Les fous changeant le monde” (The insane change the world).

- Alas, I ascertain in this phrase more and more as the years are passing by.

The same night Ann met Sergey Muravyov-Apostol again, after four years of separation.

Mute scene: they meet and kiss.

Vasilkov, Kiev province

Anastasiy Kuzmin, Muravyov-Apostol, Gebel, Solovyov

- The first unit, left turn, march! Left turn, march!

- Halt! Dear officers!

- Attention!

Gustav Gebel, Colonel, the commander of the Chernigovsky regiment.

- Ensign, leave us alone. Sergey Ivanovich, put yourself to a proper appearance. Continue, please.

- Continue!

- Let’s walk together a bit, Sergey Ivanovich, shall we?

Casemates.

Gebel, Muravyov-Apostol, Baranov

- Here we are, let’s see. A Major in the past, now a soldier of your battalion - Baranov. He showed disobedience while you were in Kiev, got drunk to a degree. You may be wondering why he got his mouth tied. I ordered so. But he managed to tell us a lot. I heard it, the others did as well.

- What could he say to get his mouth shut?

- Well, he said that soon his rank would be given back to him and everything would be right, as if you have promised such things to him. That’s what, Sergey Ivanovich. He also said that the serving would be shortened, we would live according to a Constitution and much, much more…

- Sergey Ivanovich…

- What changes do you need? You are a son of a senator, you’ve got wealth, serving, your men have land. What would you want to change?

- Well, if you change nothing, you can lose what you already have.

- And who is going to force me to lose it, huh? You? Baranov maybe? Try it out, Sergey Ivanovich.

Saint-Petersburg, 1825, November.

Ryleyev, Panov, Kakhovsky, Bestuzhev, Obolensky

Dmitriy Shchepin-Rostovskiy, staff captain of the Moskovsky regiment.

- I know full well the dire fate

Which must upon the patriot wait

Who first dare rise against the foe

And at the tyrant aim the blow.

This is my destined fate - but say

When, when has freedom won her way

Without the blood of martyrs shed,

When none for liberty have bled?

My coming doom I feel and know

And bless the stroke which lays me low

And, father, now with joy I meet

My death, to me such end is sweet

- Bravo! Bravo.

- Thank you, gentlemen. It went well, didn’t it?

Evgeniy Obolensky, Lieutenant, adjunct of the Guard corps.

- Gentlemen…

- Sergey Petrovich. Prince.

Pyotr Kakhovsky, a retired Lieutenant

- Tell Trubetskoy, if he has no gut to do it, we’ll do it by ourselves.

Mikhail Bestuzhev, Staff Captain of the Moskovsky regiment.

- Tell him we’re ready.

- Convince him.

Nikolay Panov, an ensign of the Grenadier regiment.

- My coming doom… Such beautiful words.

Ryleyev, Trubetskoy, Pestel

- We will not go out just because you have been revealed. You should have been more prudent. Now your main aim is to hide yourselves, or maybe even disband the Southern society. What do you think, Kondratiy Feodorovich?

- Personally, I don’t trust Pavel Ivanovich. And I haven’t been trusting him for a long time now.

- Kondratiy Fedorovich, you ought to know some words mustn’t be thrown out loud.

- Pardon me, Pavel Ivanovich, pardon me. It wasn’t for what you thought it was. I understand perfectly that you aren’t lying and you wouldn’t have lied to us anyway. You merely didn’t tell us the main thing. If here, in Saint-Petersburg, we went out unprepared, we wouldn’t succeed. But there would be losses, tons of them. And here you are, Pavel Ivanovich. Me and Sergey Petrovich are just a match that will ignite everything and burn out itself, aren’t we?

- Your words humiliate you. Be ashamed the one who thought of this.

- I salute you. Well...

- There’s only one thing I can’t bear in mind: if they have been revealed, why no one is arrested yet?

- Prince. Colonel Pestel wanted to frighten us. But it seems like soon the Guard will have to speak up. We should be preparing faster. It’s just about time for changes to come. I have connections now. With personas closest to the throne. I receive the news from there one of the first.

Taganrog, November 19th 1825

Alexander, servant

- There’s a gossip that, when Bonaparte was being buried, it wasn’t him in the coffin, but a counterpart - not even that similar to him.

- Haven’t heard of it, Your Majesty.

- That’s the thing: it was done for nobody to hear of it. Shave marching style. (during shaving) Light, more light…

- Your Majesty...

Saint-Petersburg

Miloradovich, Nikolay, senator Mordvinov

- His Majesty the Emperor… has died. We have to fulfill our supreme duty and pledge our allegiance to the new Emperor, Konstantin Pavlovich. Your Highne-... The Russian throne can’t be inherited by any will. The unpublished documents are nothing but paper. Nikolay Pavlovich, according to the law, His Majesty the Emperor of Russia now is Konstantin Pavlovich, your elder brother.

- But…

- If anybody else wishes to take the throne, he is an usurper.

- Why are you doing this?

- I’m helping you not to make mistakes. I’m with you and your land until I die. Here is my hand. (shake hands)

- You forced him to do this, that is illegal!

- It was the right decision. From now on, a true soldier is the Emperor of Russia, a knight, not a battalion commander who is hated not only by his subordinates, but by the General Staff as well.

- The Senate will not give the oath. I promise that to you.

- It’s not the Senate that decides, but the Guard. Here (tapping his chest) I have sixty thousand of the Guard’s bayonets. And you? I salute you.

Konstantin Pavlovich, to whom after Nikolay gave oath the whole Empire, was staying in Warsaw, from where he commanded the Polish armies. He refused the Russian throne, but didn’t write the abdication. From his point of view, only the Emperor could abdicate - and he hadn’t become one.

The Empire turned out to have no supreme authority.

Taganrog

Dibich, servants

- In the papers of the late Emperor a report on the conspirators in the Second army was found. Now they can start to act. Everything is completely uncertain in the country nowadays - send the couriers of the emergency mail to me!

- Yes, sir!

- We cannot wait. You are going to the Southern armies to arrest the head of the revolt.

- Your Excellency.

- This secret paper to be delivered to Warsaw, to His Majesty Konstantin Pavlovich. Make him read it in your presence.

- Yes, sir.

- You are going to Saint-Petersburg to hand it over personally to Nikolay Pavlovich.

- Yes, sir!

Kiev, Shcherbatov’s house.

Shcherbatov, Muravyov-Apostol, Ann Belskaya, Belskaya the mother

- Sometimes life presents us some unpleasant surprises.

- I’ll be back soon.

- Let the God forgive me. Both you and I, Sergey Ivanovich, have tasted the bitterness of the disfavour during the reign of the late Emperor. But he’s no longer here, and the new reign has begun. It brings hope to all of us.

- Hope can only be born in a heart, by itself.

- And what does your heart say to you?

- That my fate is being decided here, by me. And right now.

- Mhm.

- Katerina Pavlovna.

- Hello, sir.

- Katerina Pavlovna, I’m asking for your daughter’s hand in marriage.

- So, what did she say?

- She blessed us. But with one condition: I will have to return to Saint-Petersburg. I will be with you, I promise that to you.

Ukraine, Lintsi, Pestel’s house.

Yushnevskiy, Pestel

- Pavel! Pavel, Pavel! You’re getting ready for the department to Tulchin? Great, I’m in time. They called you to arrest. If we don’t start the business right now, everyone is doomed. We were reported.

- Who did?

- Captain Maiboroda. Pavel! Pavel, what’s happening? Pavel?

- This Judas...

- What is happening to you?

- Nothing. This pain’s been continuing for a whole week. It’s because of the contusion, it’ll be gone soon.

- We will have a couple of days left, we will notify everyone, we’ll warn Muravyov, we’ll collect as many units as we can, we’ll take the headquarters, we’ll start!

- I was leading you to victory, not to the massacre. We lost the moment.

- Pavel, wait! There must be something to do now!

- Of course, there is: I will go to Tulchin and surrender myself. If we didn’t win with honor, we have to think of how to lose with benefits.

- But if you surrender, we, all of us, are dead. Who gave you the right to decide for everybody?

- Why did you even come here, if I have no right to decide for everybody, huh? It’s even better this way. You’ll realise it later. We haven’t spilled a drop of their filthy blood. And even if we don’t get executed, we are the martyrs for the liberty of our Motherland. We are the first victims of the great war and by that I mean the war has begun. Congratulations.

The same night Colonel Pestel burned his “Russian Truth”.

Saint-Petersburg.

Senator Mordvinov, Ryleyev, Varya Ryleyeva, Natalya Ryleyeva, Nikolay, Miloradovich, servants.

- A letter from Taganrog by baron Dibich, the minister of war.

- This is the will of the late Emperor. Bring it to the Senate and assemble the Council.

- You cannot take anything out of this room.

- Come on, drink it!

- Varenka, sweetheart…

- You have to drink.

- But it’s so difficult! Angel…

- Drink it!

- Daughter, I don’t want to…

- You’ll become healthy!

- Kondratiy, drink it already, Varenka has to go to sleep. (whispering) Mordvinov has come.