Lenin: Revolution Chronicles (Демон революции)

TV Channel Russia

Non-Stop Production

In cooperation with LSR Group

present

This film is based on memoirs

of the tsar's counterintelligence officer Alexei Mezentsev.

He was a witness to the events that facilitated

the success of the October Revolution.

The truth was hidden for 100 years.

Now let the author speak. For it is his story.

BERLIN, SCHWANENWERDER ISLAND, 1924

I'm sure we could have avoided the Revolution in Russia.

We underestimated only two people.

One of them is known to everybody,

the other – forgotten, as if he didn't exist.

These two men were Lenin and Parvus.

Dead!

Dead!

PARVUS'S VILLA

Dead!

Grisha,

you oaf, bring champagne,

the best one, though we don't keep a bad one.

Here.

On January 21, Lenin's condition

sharply deteriorated.

His respiration became irregular. He was unconscious.

Also he suffered from holotonia.

At 6:50 there occurred

paralysis of the diaphragm.

He died. God heard the voice of an infidel.

This is a morning prayer for you.

Master, shall I lay the table in your study?

Yes.

What a joy. He croaked.

Fedor Bondarchuk

Evgeny Mironov

Maxim Matveev

Paulina Andreeva

Darya Ekamasova

Victoria Isakova

Alexander Baluev

Thomas Unger Dmitry Lysenkov

Georgy Fetisov Danil Lavrenov

Script by Kirill Zhurenkov Nadezhda Vorobyova

Co-Written by Vladimir Khotinenko Marina Denisevich

based upon the script by Eduard Volodarsky

Director of Photography Denis Alarcon Ramirez

Art Director Sergei Ivanov

Costumes by Regina Khomskaya Make-up by Irina Ulyanova

Music by Igor Vdovin

Produced by: Sergei Melkumov

Anton Zlatopolsky

Alexander Rodnyansky

Directed by Vladimir Khotinenko

DEMON OF THE REVOLUTION

Part 1

BERLIN, THE GERMAN EMPIRE, 1915

Berlin, the capital of the German Empire –

our enemy in the World War.

It was the War that drove Parvus here.

He grew up in the family of a stevedore

and knew from his early days poverty, the Jewish Pale

of Settlement, the pogroms and quotas

which were limiting access to the university education.

When he was 18, he left to Basel to study political economy.

He could become a scientist, but he wanted even more.

Parvus took part in the murderous events of 1905.

He was banished, then he escaped.

He grew rich on military deliveries to Turkey,

and it was when a daring plan came to his mind –

to organize a revolution in Russia on the money of the German Kaiser.

He was granted an audience with State Secretary

of the German Foreign Office, Gottlieb von Jagow.

Don't be nervous, Herr Parvus. He is ready to hear you out.

A good beginning is half the battle.

GERMAN FOREIGN OFFICE

So, you insist that it is possible to defeat Russia

by starting a revolution there?

Did I get it right?

When Germany surrenders to the Entente,

you won't be in a laughing mood, Mr. Zimmermann.

Mister State Secretary,

Russia's revolutionary movement has a great potential.

We only need to help them:

by setting one haystack to fire, we can burn down the whole barn.

But to set it to fire, we need money.

Everything needs investments:

the press, leaflets, placards, newspapers,

rifles, revolvers, explosives;

organization of strikes finally.

To the best of my recollection, Mr. Parvus,

ten years ago Russia saw strikes,

it saw publications calling for the Romanoffs downthrow,

and there was also a sufficient number of weapons.

Not sufficient!

Not sufficient at all! We were not controlling the army!

That war was too short and it developed in the Far East,

but now the War is right here, in Europe!

The army is tired of it already!

We need money to demoralize the army!

'Down With The Tsar!' 'Stop The War!'

'Land – to the peasants! Plants and factories – to the workers!'

The war in itself, Mr. State Secretary,

is a powerful demoralizing factor!

I took the liberty to formulate my ideas

in this Memorandum.

By spring, we should prepare massive political demonstrations

under the slogan of 'Peace and Freedom'.

Petrograd should be the starting point.

This is what I suggest...

This strike should spread across the railway infrastructure

between Petrograd and Warsaw

including the South-Western lines.

There should be the acts of terrorism.

There is such a saying: splinters will fly when the axe you ply.

We should not only prepare the strikes, but take up agitation.

We should release millions of copies of newspapers and leaflets.

90 per cent of the Russian Army is the peasants.

Agitation among them and the intelligentsia

is our paramount task

in Moscow, Petrograd, Kiev, Odessa, Minsk.

Further on – the Ukraine; they are demanding for autonomy,

and we can play on this factor.

The same is with Finland: the autonomy.

How much money do you need?

Quite a sum.

Naturally.

I'm offering the Kaiser a union with the Russian revolutionaries,

and revolution is like a woman asking for more and more money.

Well, Mr. Parvus, I find your plan very interesting.

But it implies huge investments.

We'll discuss everything and will give you an answer tomorrow.

Tell me, Mr. Parvus,

why are you doing all this?

For the sake of my Fatherland, of course.

I've known Mr. Parvus for a long time

and vouchsafe that he knows his beans.

Yes, his plan looks strange and even extraordinary,

but one circumstance is certainly in his favor.

Which one?

If he does fulfill his plan,

Germany will avoid the biggest defeat in its history.

Even if his plan ends up with a failure,

it would be just a not so big loss of money.

BERNE, SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1915

Neutral Switzerland appealed to banished Russian revolutionaries.

CANTEEN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BERNE

Lenin chose the capital city Berne as a place to sojourn.

So, what is The Union of Ukrainian Liberation

going to offer to us?

Their friendship, Vladimir Ilyich.

Their support. And their resources.

We suggest to merge our organizations.

We can help you with money, documents, everything necessary.

With money...

Quite an interesting proposition.

Money is a sore point in emigration.

Capitalism, you know.

Anyone donating money needs a result, a feedback.

What result is possible so far from Russia?

Do you have any donator?

- I wouldn't... - Oh, come on, Sir,

don't be childish.

I know comrade Bask very well and trust him.

No pig-in-a-poke deal. So, speak up.

Vlasa Djarismanovich.

No need to go on.

I'll write an answer to comrade Bask now.

You can hand it to him.

Or read it yourself,

- or do both things. - I don't read other people's letters.

May I know your answer?

One minute... I will tell you.

My answer is 'no'.

If you are going to mess with the imperialists,

we'll break our ways.

Wait, don't you want to make a revolution?

Grigory, please see Comrade Mgeladze out.

He needs to catch his train.

Damn!

The Devil!

It's the Devil tempting us!

I've never believed the popes though not in this case.

The Devil... I'm sitting here alone and sullen,

doing nothing, with no influence...

No... We can neither trust Bask

nor have any business with him;

we might get burnt because of a trifle.

It would be silly, after waiting for so long,

to get caught with some petty transaction.

After the failure in 1905,

the most active revolutionaries were ousted from the country.

Ulyanov-Lenin, who settled in Berne,

dined in cheap canteens moving around on foot.

Staying with him in Switzerland where those he absolutely trusted:

his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya

and his closest comrades Inessa Armand,

Ganetsky, Zinoviev, Radek.

Through them he contacted other immigrants