-
Tsarevich Alexei: Why did you abdicate for me? You never asked!
Tsar Nicholas II: I didn't want you to pay for my mistakes.
Tsarevich Alexei: Am I not paying for them now? Aren't we all?
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Oh, God, but it's good to be alive! The Earth is like a field in summer, just bursting with good things. Someday, when all the wars are over, someone young will lead us to the harvest. As long as there are children, anything is possible.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: Nicky? Is it all right if I say something intimate?
Tsar Nicholas II: In public?
Tsarina Alexandra: I'll whisper it.
Tsar Nicholas II: All right. What is it?
Tsarina Alexandra: Nicky... I adore you.
-
[imprisoned in Ekaterinburg]
Tsar Nicholas II: I suddenly thought of the yacht this morning. Do you remember how the band used to play all the time?
Tsarina Alexandra: And out of tune. Do you think they drank?
Tsar Nicholas II: How did that waltz go? Hmm-Hmm-Hmmmm Hmm-*Hmm*-Hmm-Humm.
Tsarina Alexandra: You're no better than the band.
Tsar Nicholas II: [Nicholas gets off the bed and places a chair against the door and returns] You're beautiful hands.
Tsarina Alexandra: The girls?
Tsar Nicholas II: They won't come in. We're alone.
[he lies down with her]
Tsar Nicholas II: I still want you so much. Nothing can ever change that, Sunny. I do love you.
[kiss]
-
Tsar Nicholas II: A strong man has no need of power, and a weak man is destroyed by it.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: A son! I have a son.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: What are our chances?
Yakovlev: Of what?
Tsar Nicholas II: Living 'till Christmas.
Yakovlev: I haven't thought about it.
Tsar Nicholas II: You puzzle me. You'd be happy to see us dead, and yet you help us get away.
Yakovlev: I haven't your taste for murder, Bloody Nicholas. I've never had a chance to get used to it. How many men have you killed? Have you the least idea? God knows how many peasants died! Nobody counted children. You only know the number of soldiers because somebody counted them for you. Seven million! Six quarts a man times seven million! It's an ocean. Have you ever seen a battle? I'm wrong. You're not Bloody Nicholas! You're a man of no imagination.
-
The German Consul: It's outrageous. We are here in Zurich, and if I understand you, you want the German government, which is at war with Russia, to take you to Sweden, because you can get to Russia from there.
Vladimir Lenin: I'm offering to stop the war.
The German Consul: I didn't know you had so much authority.
Vladimir Lenin: If there was a Bolshevik government in Russia, we'd immediately make peace with Germany. Then how many German divisions could you transfer to the western front ?
The German Consul: And now you are asking for classified information. Do you realize my government has locked up more Bolsheviks than anyone else? How can you expect us to help you make a revolution? You have no sense of proportion!
Vladimir Lenin: All I'm interested in is power in Russia and it's lying there on the streets, waiting to be picked up. Kerensky won't last. He's still fighting the war, and the people are desperate for peace. I shall offer them peace. Then you'll see the real revolution.
The German Consul: I see your jokes are very subtle. A Marxist wants to use the Kaiser - and, perhaps, the Kaiser can use the Marxist.
-
The American Ambassador: In your position, I'd put this Lenin quietly in jail.
Alexander Kerensky: On what pretext?
The American Ambassador: I've read his speeches. Surely, you have to.
Alexander Kerensky: I cannot put a man in jail for what he thinks. It's in your Bill of Rights.
The American Ambassador: He wants to overthrow the government by force. We Americans call that treason.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: The Russia my father gave me never lost a war. What shall I say to my son when the time comes? That I had no pride? That I was weak? I've always thought God meant me to rule. He put me here. He chose me, and whatever happens is His will. We shall fight on until victory.
Count Witte: There will be no victory. Only strikes and riots. You must give your people a little of what they want, sir. Not all. Just, a taste.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs, and the Hoehenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.
-
Rasputin: I see blood when I shut my eyes. A lot of blood. I saw blood once before, when I was in Jerusalem. And then my father died. In Kazan, there is an ivory Christ whose wounds bleed. Someone told me in Karkoff, there is a Madonna that sheds real tears. Matushka, I see things. I have power. I cure the sick. Holy men kneel to me and kiss my hands. I am a vessel of the Lord. I have spoken with God. It must be so, how else can I do these things? I save souls and bring peace. God leads me. He brought me here. He speaks through me. I am the voice of God. It is His will. I have been sent to do great things.
-
[after learning of the "Bloody Sunday" massacre]
Tsar Nicholas II: Why wasn't I told they were marching?
Count Witte: Would you have met them?
Tsar Nicholas II: How could I?
Count Witte: Would you have given them a Duma?
Tsar Nicholas II: Of course not!
Count Witte: Elections? Schools?
Tsar Nicholas II: No...
Count Witte: THEN WHY BOTHER TO INFORM YOU? YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE ANYTHING.
-
Prince Yusupov: We're going to be torn to pieces. You politicians think you're in control, but you'll be swept away like the rest of us. Rome, Athens, Petersburg, you can't stop it. In the meantime, I shall enjoy myself. Come to my place on Thursday, Rasputin. I'm having a special little party. This beautiful scarf, have it. I can't stop the revolution, but until it comes, let's have some fun. Even if it's only for a few more days.
-
[as the Queen Mother berates her son's failures in a late 1916 visit to his military base]
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: I wish your father were alive.
Tsar Nicholas II: Don't throw him at me.
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: He knew how to be a Tsar. He'd have burned Vienna down, stomped on the Germans, and shot the strikers, ANYTHING to give Russia peace. And HE'D certainly would've known how to deal with Rasputin.
-
[as the Tsar considers abdication]
Tsar Nicholas II: Tell me, Doctor Fedorov. If my son, as the future Tsar, were left behind, to be educated, while I and my family went abroad, how long would he be likely to live, as a hemophiliac?
Dr. Fedorov: Deprived of your love and care, and what I hear are his natural surroundings, it's hard to say, it's a matter of luck and chance, your Majesty. There are no real statistics. One would hope that he could live a normal life, but, well... twenty would be a good age.
-
Tsarevich Alexei: Mother, I'm bleeding...
Tsarina Alexandra: Oh, my God...
-
Tsarevich Alexei: Alexei, Alexei, mustn't run and mustn't play, mustn't jump and mustn't climb, must be careful all the time.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: We're seeing Witte.
Tsarina Alexandra: That man!
Tsar Nicholas II: He's a brilliant Prime Minister.
Tsarina Alexandra: I never liked him.
Tsar Nicholas II: I'm the one he bellows at.
Tsarina Alexandra: You shouldn't let him. He's your servant. Everyone's your servant.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: You enjoy yourself at parties. I get headaches. If you sat there, feeling everyone disliked you...
Tsar Nicholas II: No one dislikes you.
Tsarina Alexandra: Yes, they do. You never see unpleasant things. You drift away. Sometimes I wonder if you even hear me half the time.
Tsar Nicholas II: Just now, I find you all too audible.
Tsarina Alexandra: Nicky? Guess what.
Tsar Nicholas II: You've got your headache.
-
Rasputin: I was 20 when the vision came. We peasants get them all the time. The Virgin comes and tells them when to sell their sheep if they want to make a profit. She told me to become a pilgrim. So I started to walk. I waited for her to tell me when to stop, but she didn't. I walked 2000 miles, and when I got to Greece, I couldn't walk any longer. So I stopped. I spent 2 years in a monastery, and then I walked home again. Sometimes people say to me, "what do I need to become a starets?" and I say, "good feet."
-
Father Gapon: The Tsar is here in Petersburg, to bless the troops. He's staying at the Winter Palace. Thousands of us will march there on Sunday morning. I'll go to him on the balcony, and read this: "Sire, we workingmen and inhabitants of St. Petersburg come to you, Sire, to seek for truth, justice, and protection. Only you can hear our prayers, and if you do not, we shall die, here on this square, before your palace."
-
[after the 'Bloody Sunday' massacre]
Father Gapon: He never came... Nicholas the Murderer. The bloody, bloody murderer.
-
Rasputin: All saints were sinners once. God loves sinners.
-
Rasputin: We had a man in Pokrovskoe. He didn't wash or work. He lied, stole, cheated, drank, chased all the women. He was a sinner. Why, out of all men, did the Virgin come to him?
Tsarina Alexandra: Perhaps he lied. You said he was a liar...
Rasputin: No. She came. I saw her. I know all there is to know about sin. Pray with me, Matushka. God is here.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a Tsar! They need tradition. Not this! They're the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in!
Count Witte: I see. So they talk, pray, march, plead, petition and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police, spies, and now, after today, they will be shot. Is this God's will? Are these His methods? Make war on your own people? How long do you think they're going to stand there and let you shoot them? YOU ask ME who's responsible? YOU ask?
-
Trotsky: I'll never understand you. You hate anyone who's not your kind of Bolshevik more than you hate the Tsar.
Martov: No wonder they call you Robespierre. Everyone's got to think like you, or they're out!
Trotsky: He thinks freedom is something you write on a wall, you don't actually practice it.
Vladimir Lenin: That's not true. Of course, I agree you're free to say what you like. And you must agree I'm free to shoot you for saying it.
-
Vladimir Lenin: Murder, arson, terror, I'll agree to anything that gives us power. Power! And we can't have power if we compromise. Even though it takes years, terror and power.
-
[after Nagorny saves Alexei from falling off a rock he was climbing]
Tsarevich Alexei: It's all right, Nagorny. You'll always save me.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Alexei spends all day with you. You hardly ever come to meals. I hardly ever seem to see you anymore.
Tsarina Alexandra: My place is where I am needed most.
Tsar Nicholas II: It must be hard to have so many people need you. I'll be patient. If I wait, my turn will come.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: Sometimes I wonder how you live with me.
Tsar Nicholas II: I wonder too. Only I know I could never live without you... Sunny.
-
[on the Three-Hundredth Anniversery of Romanov rule]
Tsar Nicholas II: [to Stolypin] I didn't want to come on this Tercentenary tour, Peter Arkadiavitch. But, God help me, I do love it when they stand and wave!
-
[as a wagon of peasant girls rides by]
Nun: Good day, and the Lord be with you.
[Rasputin rises naked out of the wagon with a bottle of vodka]
Rasputin: And the Lord be with you! Ha ha!
-
[after the assassination attempt on Count Stolypin]
Tsar Nicholas II: He's a good man. They always kill good men. The ones who've helped them most. They killed my grandfather. He freed the serfs, you know. He helped them; so, they threw a bomb. Stolypin's a good man.
[feels in his pocket]
Tsar Nicholas II: I can't find a match.
Vice Premier Kokovstov: They've got the man who shot him.
Tsar Nicholas II: The man?
Vice Premier Kokovstov: Some kind of revolutionary.
Tsar Nicholas II: Damn them all. You help them, and they kill you for it. Give them Dumas and they give you bombs. I want them paid in kind. Do you understand me? I want something done!
-
[near the start of World War I]
Nikolasha: Here's some wonderful news, a telegram from the Kaiser, just what we wanted, offering to mediate between us and Austria.
Tsar Nicholas II: I knew I could count on Willie! You see? He signed it "Your very dear and devoted cousin, Willie."
Count Witte: With all due respect to your cousin, Sire, the Kaiser is a deceitful megalomaniac. If he is offering to help, then it is time to pray.
-
Count Witte: I am old, sir. I have seen so many wars. They all seemed so important at the time, but now I don't even remember what they were called. Millions of dead men! I don't know why. Nobody knows. You could so easily stop this war, sir. All you have to do is get up, now, quietly, and go home to your family. You would be the greatest of all the Tsars.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Gentlemen, Germany has declared war on Russia. God save Russia!
Nikolasha: God save the Tsar.
-
Count Witte: None of you will be here when this war ends. Everything we fought for will be lost, everything we've loved will be broken. The victors will be as cursed as the defeated. The world will grow old, and men will wander about, lost in the ruins, and go mad. Tradition, restraint, virtue, they all go. I'm not mourning for myself, but for the people who will come after me, they will live without hope. And all they will have will be guilt, revenge, and terror. And the world will be full of fanatics and trivial fools.
-
[as war is announced in the Duma]
Alexander Kerensky: Set all differences aside. We are Russians, first of all. And until the day of victory dawns, we stand united in the defense of Holy Russia.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: All my life. My whole life I've done what you want. I gave mother up. You hated her, so we don't see her anymore. I gave my friends up. Do you know I haven't a single friend? I've got my family. Four girls, one sick boy... and you. I ask myself, before I eat, sleep, or change my clothes, is this what Sunny wants? And it never is. There's always more! Sweet Jesus how much do you want of me?
-
[seeing a young girl]
Rasputin: So, you'd like to be an opera singer? Yes, you have the chest for it.
-
Rasputin: I don't hate anyone. And yet, so many enemies. I'm not rich, what I get, I give away, I take no vengeance on the men I remove from office. When you fall, I won't abuse you.
-
Rasputin: I can't leave. I want to serve Batushka and Matushka. I want peace, and food for peasants everywhere. I want that girl you you saw. And all the girls I haven't seen. I want to sleep, but can't sleep unless I'm drunk. I want to die and go to heaven. I want music. I want God to love me and I want to see YOU dance. Ha ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha!
-
[the Queen Mother is visiting the Tsar at his military base]
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: I came to congratulate you, Nicky.
Tsar Nicholas II: What for?
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: For finding, out of all Russia's countless cretins, idiots and incompetents the men least qualified to run your government.
-
[drunk on opium]
Rasputin: I'm going to die soon, my friends. I've made my will. I won't live to see the new year. And it makes me angry.
[chuckles]
Rasputin: It's good to enjoy yourself with your friends, eh? I don't want to die.
-
[after being poisoned heavily by Prince Yusopov, Rasputin still lives]
Rasputin: I've been poisoned... you tried to kill me... you all have. You silly fools... I thought I could trust you... you silly fools... you can't even KILL properly. You're too small to destroy me.
[grabs Prince Yusupov]
Rasputin: Get up, prince. Get up! Try. Let's see you try to kill me.
-
Rasputin: I begged Batushka not to start this war. I know who dies. You don't die, the people die. The wise old men, the generals, the ministers, the ones who say "Do this!" "Go there!" No mud on THEIR boots. No bullets in THEIR bellies. Where's YOUR rifle, prince, hmm? Why aren't you at the front where the blood is? I'm not a German. I come from the Russian soil. And you fools will never destroy me. Thank God Russia has sons like me, and isn't at the mercy of scum like you.
-
[reading the dead Rasputin's will]
Tsarina Alexandra: [in tears] "I feel that I shall leave life before January the first. If any of your relatives have brought my death, then none of your family, none of your children, or relatives, will remain alive. They will be killed by the Russian people. Brother will kill brother and there will be no nobles left in the country."
-
General Alexeiev: Your majesty, I'm afraid it's too late. The Duma has appointed a provisional government, and all your ministers have been arrested.
Tsar Nicholas II: Order... your troops... to march...
General Alexeiev: At this moment, sire, if my troops knew the Tsar was here, there's every chance they would turn on you. And, sire, the Duma also insists on your abdication.
-
[as the Tsar signs his abdication papers]
Tsar Nicholas II: It will be spring soon, at Livadia. That's where you'll send us I imagine. I've often thought I should like to be a country gentleman. I've always liked to watch things grow. It's lovely there. And warm. And they say the soil is very good. Much of the happiness I've known, I've had there.
-
[signing his abdication]
Tsar Nicholas II: "March 15, 1917." The ides of March.
-
[as the recently abdicated Tsar arrives at his palace]
Russian Guard: Who's there?
Tsar Nicholas II: Citizen Nicholas Romanov.
-
Yurovsky: [the execution of the Tsar and his family has been ordered in 1918] I've kept their mail. I didn't know whether they ought to have it. Shall I give it to them now? Would it be cruel or kind? I don't know how to judge these things. I don't think anyone knows.
-
[the former Tsar and his family plant in the palace gardens]
Tsar Nicholas II: There. In just a few months, these will be turnips.
Anastasia: Carrots.
Tsarevich Alexei: And when they grow, will we still be here to eat them?
-
Tsar Nicholas II: [in Kerensky's office in summer, 1917, just after he was overthrown and forced to abdicate] All we do is dream of England. We'd be very happy there.
Alexander Kerensky: England... won't accept you.
Tsar Nicholas II: Won't accept... King George is my cousin.
Alexander Kerensky: He-George Vth...
Alexander Kerensky: doesn't seem to want you either. He has to think of his own position. Nor will the French. None of our allies want to risk it. They are at war to save democracy and you were a tyrant.
-
Alexander Kerensky: No munitions, no supplies, I don't know where the army stands. The treasury is bankrupt, the students riot, the workers carry arms. The socialists want this, the Mensheviks want that, the radicals, the centrists, the cadets... the Bolsheviks. I can't arrest them even if I wanted to. We have rights and laws now. You had power and no laws. I have laws and no power.
Tsar Nicholas II: I wish I could help you.
Alexander Kerensky: You had your chances. I wish I had mine.
-
Vladimir Lenin: Revolution! Revolution now! Land! Peace! All power to the Soviets!
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Things. Things one can do without. They break. They get lost. One buys and sells them. The main thing is that we are together.
-
Vladimir Lenin: The Government has fallen. We shall now begin to construct the socialist order.
-
Alexander Kerensky: The Bolsheviks have taken over the station, the telegraphs, the banks? If we had loyal troops, how many would it take to dislodge them?
General Alexeiev: One regiment would be enough. But we haven't got a regiment! At least, not one I can trust.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: At times I rather like it. Mending clothes, teaching classes, and quiet afternoons. I doze and daydream. I think about my life. I don't know what I did wrong. I'd feel better if I did.
-
Tsarevich Alexei: Father? There's no hope, is there, father?
Tsar Nicholas II: Nonsense.
Tsarevich Alexei: None at all.
-
Colonel Kobylinsky: Goodbye.
Tsar Nicholas II: What will you do now?
Colonel Kobylinsky: What can I do? Whatever side I join, I kill Russians. I don't know what to do anymore.
-
Colonel Kobylinsky: God bless you.
Tsar Nicholas II: It's too late for that. But thank you.
-
[as Nagorny is to be executed]
Tsarevich Alexei: I'd like to kill them.
Tsar Nicholas II: Wait and see. They'll do what's right.
Tsarevich Alexei: I know him. He's a murderer.
Tsar Nicholas II: He's a thoughtful man. He'll send Nagorny back to us. He's not a monster. I've never known a heart without some murder in it. I made these men. They are our Russians. I am responsible for what they are. I let them starve. I put them in prisons. And I shot them. If there's hatred in them now, I put it there. But they ARE filled with love. And mercy, too. You must remember that.
Tsarevich Alexei: They are all murderers.
[the execution shot is heard outside]
Tsarevich Alexei: I'd like to kill them all.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Nagorny is innocent. He's like a child. You don't shoot children, do you? In your new world, are there penalties for innocence?
Yurovsky: Sometimes.
-
Yurovsky: It takes a wise judge to know who is innocent and who is guilty.
-
Yurovsky: No sun today?
Tsarevich Alexei: No.
Yurovsky: What a shame. I suppose you're not well enough. What's it like, being ill?
Tsarevich Alexei: What's it like having grey eyes?
Yurovsky: It can't be nice, being an invalid at your age. And they can't do anything to help one. What a pity.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: Think of it... Russian princesses doing an English play in French for an audience of Polish nobles... I hope somebody understands it.
-
The Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna: [while confined in Yekaterinburg, a guard opens the door and peeks inside the room] Go away! What do you want? Do you want to see me?
[she opens her robe and exposes herself to him]
The Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna: Is that what you want?
[he looks her over then leaves]
The Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna: I'm twenty one, and I'm pretty! Everyone says I'm pretty! And that's the only man who's ever seen me.
The Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna: [she embraces her sister] I know, I know. It's alright, my dear. He's gone, he's gone.
The Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna: You know what's funny? I wanted to ask him in. Just once... I wanted somebody.
-
Rasputin: [to Alexandra] The child will die, if you don't get down on your knees and beg for his life.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: [in a letter to Nicholas] My very own darling. Remember last night when we were together? I yearn for your caresses, I can never have enough of them. I kiss you, caress you, love you, long for you, can't sleep without you, bless you. Sunny.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: [convincing him to become commander in chief of the armies] Oh Nicky. This is the beginning of the glory of your reign. Our friend told me so. It will be the greatest page in Russian history, the story of these weeks and days. And while your gone, don't worry over what you've left behind. I'm here. Lean on me; use me. I'm not wise or strong, but God will show me what to do.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: [about Alexandra spending all day with Alexei] My place is where I'm needed most.
Tsar Nicholas II: It must be hard to have so many people need you. I'll be patient. If I wait my turn will come.
-
Vladimir Lenin: [depressed] In the last ten years I've spent... three months in Russia. I'm out of fashion. No one's wearing me this year, hmmm? I talk and no one listens, and I write and no one reads. Think what we'll be like in 10 or 15 years. Emigres go off their heads in the end, you know.
Mme. Krupskaya: No!
Vladimir Lenin: Mad old cranks with no money, no country, always worrying about the laundry, complaining when the mail's late, being ill in charity hospitals, and buried with paupers.
-
Prince Yusupov: [to Rasputin] I can't stop the Revolution, but until it comes, let's have some fun!
[Rasputin laughs]
-
Vladimir Lenin: [to a journalist attending a Communist Party congress in London] Pay attention! You're about to witness the birth of the Bolshevik Party.
-
English journalist: Excuse me Mr Lenin, I'm from the socialist worker. Could you tell me what you think of the socialist movement in England?
Mme. Krupskaya: The English cut their meat wrong, their tea is terrible and the weather was better in Siberia, but at least you keep your policemen under control.
-
[Nicholas tries to intervene when Alexis' loyal bodyguard Nagorny gets into a fight with a Bolshevik guard who tries to snatch a gold chain off Alexis; another guard smacks Nicholas across the face]
Dr. Botkin: You stuck the Tsar!
-
Yurovsky: You don't approve of this, comrade?
Goloshchekin: No, I quite approve of terror, arson, murder, any tool that serves the revolution.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: The boy will bring us luck! We'll smash the Japanese and drive them from Korea and I don't care what it costs. I have a son to fight for now.
Tsarina Alexandra: We have a son.
-
Tsarina Alexandra: You're too gentle. You should slam your fist down as your father always did.
-
Count Witte: Port Arthur has been under siege for four months. It has cost us 40,000 dead. If it - A student stopped me in the street the other day, "Excuse me, sir. But, why are we at war?" "Because, my boy, we want Korea, but the Japanese will insist on fighting us for it." "Thank you, sir. But, what does Russia need Korea for ?" "Because, my boy, we have no ice-free port on the Pacific." "I see. In that case, sir, it isn't good enough." He's right, sir. It's not good enough, at all.
-
Count Witte: Imagine, sire, imagine - that you are a factory worker. You're really poor. Your belly is never full. You freeze eight months of the year. Your children have no school. No doctor! Your country taxes you! And sends your sons a continent away to die, on a piece of land, on the Pacific. Now, sir, Japan is a third rate power. If she defeats us, if, Port Arthur falls, we shall be disgraced in the eyes of the world and here at home we shall have an insurrection on our hands.
Tsar Nicholas II: But, people love me Sergei Yulyevich.
Count Witte: They want a constitution and the right to vote for an elected Duma. They're angry and they're serious.
Tsar Nicholas II: Are you advising me to give my rights away?
Count Witte: Advising you to stop - a hopeless war.
-
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: Not even London on a Sunday is as boring as a room full of Romanovs.
-
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: We're an 18th Century country in a 20th Century world. We need all our strength and money to look after Russia. Don't waste it on all those yellow buddhas or pagans or whatever they are. It's a great mistake to get involved in these strikes or wars.
-
Queen Mother Maria Fedorova: I know I'm not as clever as I pretend to be; but, I'm sure of this. Get out of Korea and forget about Japan.
Tsar Nicholas II: I'm 36. You must let me look after this war.
-
Dr. Botkin: The female is the carrier. The mother gives it to the son. Your mother got it from her mother, Queen Victoria, and passed it on to you.
Tsarina Alexandra: I see.
Dr. Botkin: It strikes some males and misses others. Of Victoria's four sons, just one had hemophilia.
Tsarina Alexandra: And just one of mine.
-
Sonya: You know what they say, Father. God is too high and the Tsar too far away.
-
Vladimir Lenin: This must be some of your nonsense, Trotsky. "Lenin's theory comes to this: The Party decides what the people think. An elite decides what the Party thinks. The Central Committee decides what the elite thinks. And Lenin decides what they all think."
-
Trotsky: Russia will explode. A massacre in Petersburg and now the Japanese have forced Nicholas to accept peace on their terms. He's lost the war! Thousands of soldiers killed and all for nothing. This time Nicholas has destroyed himself. I'm going to Petersburg.
Martov: But you'll need bombs and explosives and ammunition.
Mme. Krupskaya: They can be smuggled in there.
Vladimir Lenin: Oh, for God's sake, don't discuss that with her! She'd probably think she can wheel machine guns across the frontier in a baby carriage.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: He's always happy here at Livadia. The Crimea's good for him.
Tsarina Alexandra: Good for all of us. Some tea?
-
Tsar Nicholas II: Pyotr Arkadyevich, only you could wear a briefcase with a bathing suit.
Stolypin: I think I'd feel naked without it. Besides, I must have somewhere to put my - lifeboat.
-
Tsar Nicholas II: What's wrong with the Okhrana? Can't 10,000 secret agents find a printing press?
Stolypin: They can't find all of them.
Tsar Nicholas II: I want it stopped!
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Tsar Nicholas II: Damn the Duma! Witte's work. He made me give it to the people. Close it. Shut it down!
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Gilliard: Police reports - on Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. Drunk, half the time. Whores. General's wives. Oh, he's generous with himself, I'll say that for him. That's his only Christian virtue. He'll sleep with anyone. And it's no secret. Everyone knows it.
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Stolypin: You've got to send him off, away from Petersburg.
Tsar Nicholas II: How can I?
Stolypin: People think he violates your daughters and your wife! Get him out of Petersburg.
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Tsarina Alexandra: I still say Alexei needs a nurse.
Tsar Nicholas II: He needs the company of men.
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Tsar Nicholas II: I never seem to see you anymore.
Tsarina Alexandra: My place is where I'm needed most.
Tsar Nicholas II: It must be hard to have so many people need you. I'll be patient. If I wait, my turn will come.
Tsarina Alexandra: Oh, Nicky. What a mess I made of things.
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Rasputin: I'm going home. I don't like St. Petersburg. It makes me drink too much. And when I drink - the women come. The women here are worse than the peasants in my village. No restraint.
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Rasputin: If you need me while I'm gone, pretend I'm with you. Say the things that trouble you, the way you always do and it will help. I only sit and listen anyway. The Voice of God is in *you*. And no harm will come.
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Tsar Nicholas II: Rasputin drinks, takes bribes, he is an adulterer.
Tsarina Alexandra: He's a saint! Little men always abuse them.
Tsar Nicholas II: I'll show you the police reports.
Tsarina Alexandra: More little men!
Tsar Nicholas II: People say he sleeps with you.
Tsarina Alexandra: What do I care what people think?
Tsar Nicholas II: I have to care!
Tsarina Alexandra: I want him. Bring him back!
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Vladimir Lenin: Spies everywhere. No one trusts anyone.
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Anastasia: I'm going to run away and be an actress when I grow up. It's my destiny! Once you've felt the call of the stage, you know. It's in your blood.
Marie: A princess can't be an actress. You might as well say you feel the call to be a trollop!
Anastasia: What's a trollop? Trollop? Trollop! Yes, that sounds nice! Perhaps I'll be a trollop instead.
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Count Witte: If Russia mobilizes, there will be a war.
Tsar Nicholas II: The Austrians are shelling Belgrade. We must be ready to defend ourselves. I'm ordering prayers for peace to be said in all the churches. But, now if you'll excuse me, I must see my ministers for armaments and recruitment.
Count Witte: It is in our hands, not God's. He gave us minds to reason. We can talk sanity to lunatics. We can calm mad dogs. God help us if we have to start praying! We can pray when we bury the dead!
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Col. Voikov: It won't last a week. We'll bury the German Army and that little pansy of a Kaiser and be home for Christmas.
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Tsar Nicholas II: Order the mobilization.
Count Witte: Madness. Madness.
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Alexander Kerensky: They're coming for us. Now, do we run? Or, do we fight?
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Alexander Kerensky: Set all differences aside! We are Russians, first of all. And until the day of victory dawns, we stand united! In the defense of Holy Russia!
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Rasputin: I want peace! And food for peasants, everywhere. I want that girl you saw. And all the girls I haven't seen. I want to sleep. But, can't sleep unless I'm drunk! I want to die and go to heaven! I want music! I want God to love me! And I want to see you dance!
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Tsar Nicholas II: Please! I didn't mean to! Please! I'm so ashamed! I didn't mean to do it! Please! Don't! Please! Don't! Please!
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Alexander Kerensky: Not quite the way you do it in your Parliament. We haven't English manners yet.
The British Ambassador: My government is more concerned with content, than style. One detects a certain sentiment of peace. That worries us.
Alexander Kerensky: It's mostly the Bolsheviks. Nobody pays any attention to them. They only have six members in the Duma.
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Tsarina Alexandra: I want my things. I want my pictures and my scrapbooks. I want...
Alexander Kerensky: Frau Romanov, you have kept your head. You should be grateful.
Tsar Nicholas II: Come along. It doesn't matter.
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Vladimir Lenin: The government has fallen. We shall now begin to construct the Socialist Order.
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Colonel Kobylinsky: Do you got any money?
Tsar Nicholas II: Not much. Why?
Colonel Kobylinsky: Has it crossed your mind that I represent a non-existent government? Who put me in this post? Who gave me the authority? Whose money pays for troops? Kerensky's gone. The money's gone. I haven't paid them in a month.
Tsar Nicholas II: You think I should pay for them? Prisoners keep the guard. I wish I'd had you for my Finance Minister. You would have revolutionized the penal system.
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Marie: [looking at photographs] Look at me. It's just awful!
Anastasia: You look like a thief.
Marie: You look like a trollop!
Anastasia: I don't! What's a trollop?
Tsar Nicholas II: Dear Lord, so she does.
Tsarina Alexandra: I don't find that amusing.
Tsar Nicholas II: Just look.
Tsarina Alexandra: It's not amusing at all.
[laughs]
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Tsar Nicholas II: Thinking back. When I think back, I can see them all so clearly now. The corners that I didn't turn.
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Tsarevich Alexei: I should have had a chance. The right to live my own life. Make my own decisions. I could have tried to help Russia. My mother and my sisters and, perhaps, even you. I could have been a Romanov. A Tsar!
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Tsar Nicholas II: It all went - wrong. I hardly know why or how.
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Tsarevich Alexei: I just bleed. It's my fate. I bleed.
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Avadeyev: I want the Romanovs. I have a legal order for them.
Yakovlev: There's only one legal government in Soviet Russia.
Avadeyev: One government? Where is it? What's it doing? They're losing to the Whites. They've taken arms and they're coming here to save your Tsar. Can your Central Committee stop them?
Yakovlev: He's not my Tsar! He's my responsibility. And I'm not saving him, I'm taking him to trial.
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Tsarina Alexandra: Nicky, is today your birthday?
Tsar Nicholas II: No. That was weeks ago.
Tsarina Alexandra: Yes, it was. And mine too. I was 46. Imagine that?
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Tsarina Alexandra: What's the day like?
Tsar Nicholas II: I don't know now.
Tsarina Alexandra: It doesn't matter. It goes on and on. I don't know anymore. What can God have in mind for us?
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Tsarina Alexandra: I couldn't play the piano now.
Tsar Nicholas II: I used to hear you practicing when I was working in my office.
Tsarina Alexandra: Did you? Schuman and Schubert.
Tsar Nicholas II: I never thought much of your voice.
Tsarina Alexandra: Didn't you? You never told me that before.
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[last lines]
Yurovsky: Wait in here, please.
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[the Tsarina is devastated after learning the news of Rasputin's passing]
Tsarina Alexandra: [in tears] Tell them I can't see them today.
Sazonov: We need you to sign the decree, Petersburg is starving!
Tsarina Alexandra: [agitated] I can't, you're glad he's dead, I know you wanted him to die!
Nicholas and Alexandra Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Language: English,French,German,Russian Release date: December 13, 1971