painstaking work.
The first seeming success
is followed by months,
sometimes years, of checking,
repeated tests,
disappointments, achievements
and failures.
DAY SIX
which begins in the evening
I'm ready.
Attention!
Four... Three...
Two... Go!
What a lousy game!
Simply disaster.
Your Central Army Club.
What do you do on Sunday?
I've got something brewing.
Oh, you ladies' man.
- Have you fallen asleep or what?
- I was ready long ago.
Attention! Four...
- He's lying.
- Three... Two... Go!
You could've switched off the radio,
just for appearances' sake.
It's the same thing.
Is he gone?
I'm ready.
Attention! Four... Three...
Two... Go!
Interesting.
We increase the current in a discharge.
We increase the magnetic field.
The stream of neutrons
should grow accordingly.
But it doesn't.
It doesn't...
Mitya.
I think I've seen this photo already.
And not once.
That idiot, Fyodorov, has muddled it
up again.
What is he thinking about?
The guy's in love, so to speak.
Tomorrow I'll kick him
the hell out of the laboratory!
Don't you have any pity for the guy?
I'm fed up with your kindness.
Incidentally, communism should
be built by kind people.
Business-like people.
Kind and tolerant.
The kind ones will get everything
stolen from under their noses.
Only kind people,
and only tolerant.
I can imagine what kind of communism
you'll build. All right, let's go.
You've been educated on the positive
examples of modern literature.
And you, what are you?
A good or a bad guy?
I'm a good guy.
And this is a great
delusion of yours.
First of all, you're
ideologically unstable.
In old times, any
of your utterances...
In old times I kept mum.
Look, it's funny: "Discover
a new particle in the current quarter!"
Oh, come on.
No! Don't you see
how delightful it is?
The discovery of a new particle
is a momentous event.
Does it really matter if it happens
in the current quarter or the next?
Nothing interesting. It was
just a fool who wrote it.
Mitya, a fool
is always interesting.
A fool is a social
phenomenon, so to speak.
I just adore observing fools.
If we didn't have them, the picture
of the world wouldn't be complete.
To begin with, a fool
is the precise reflection
of the time he lives in.
A clever man may find himself ahead
of his time or on its sidelines.
But it will never happen to a fool.
And mind you, Mitya, the world of
fools is incredibly diverse.
A foreign fool is nothing
like our native fool.
A fool in the science has nothing
to do with an administrative fool.
Oh, what splendid fools
we can still come across!
Persevering and lasting fools.
A clever man may err, a fool will
never do, and that's amazing!
No social formation,
even the most perfect one,
can guarantee itself
against fools.
They're indestructible.
You're... pure gold, Ilya.
Anyway, let's drop by
the new installation.
What for?
Just to take a look.
All right.
Well, all my hopes
are put in it now.
Are you sure that it's principally
different from the old one?
Absolutely.
First, it's more powerful.
And besides, it's a little bit cleverer.
Ilya.
What if it wasrt thermonuclear?
Ask me this question tomorrow morning.
- Good evening.
- Good evening.
- Where are they going?
- To dance.
Shall we go too?
If it were thermonuclear...
Stop torturing yourself. You'll test
the new installation and you'll see.
Let's go to dances.
When will the pumps start working?
- At the new one?
- Yes, at the new installation.
They were started today.
And how long will they pump?
For about two months.
- Mitya...
- I know, you may leave even tomorrow.
I'm not sleeping.
Go back to sleep.
- What are you looking for?
- Coffee.
It's in the lower drawer.
Why do you need coffee at night?
I still need to think.
Why don't you move to the institute?
You can put a folding bed there.
That's possible.
Look, Mitya, tell me frankly,
what do you need me for?
That's a silly question.