much warmer than abroad.
But there it's warmer outside.
A Russian can't live in their
houses until he gets accustomed
- Don't they heat them?
- They do.
But the houses and stoves
are different to ours.
-Were you away for long?
- Four years.
But l was in just one place -
in the country.
You must have forgotten
what life's like here.
But l hardly knew it
before.
And now they say so much
has changed here.
There's a lot of talk
about courts.
Yes, that's true enough.
- How's the law over there?
- l don't know.
l've heard much good
about our courts.
And there's no capital
punishment here.
- ls there over there?
-Yes.
l saw an execution
in France, in Lyons.
- Do they hang there?
- No, they cut off the heads.
- Do they yell?
- No, it's done in an instant.
They put a man in a frame,
and a wide knife,
it's called a guillotine,
falls with force and weight.
The head springs off so quickly,
in a wink of an eye.
But the preparations
are dreadful.
You know, they announced
the sentence to him,
tied his hands, prepared him,
took him up the scaffold.
lmagine what must've been
going on in his mind.
What convulsions his spirit
must have endured.
An outrage on the soul,
that's what it was.
lt is said
'Thou shall not kill'
but must he to be killed for
murder? No! lt is not right!
l saw the sight a month ago,
and it's before my eyes
this very moment.
Saw it in my dreams 5 times.
lt's a good thing
there's no pain,
when the head flies off.
Look! You made the remark
now, didn't you?
Everyone says
the same thing!
Everyone notices it!
That's what the guillotine
is made for!
And then a thought
came to my head.
What if it makes things
worse?
You know, if you
take torture.
You suffer pain,
bodily pain.
lt distracts you
from emotional suffering.
You suffer bodily pain
until you die.
Here the most terrible part
is not in the bodily pain,
but the certain
knowledge
that in an hour,
then in 10 minutes,
then in half a minute,
then now, this very instant
your soul will leave your body
and you'll no longer be a man.
And that is certain,
that's the main thing.
When you place your head
under that knife
and hear the iron
grate over your head,
that quarter of a second
is worst of all.
lt is not my fantasy,
many people said the same.
l feel it so deeply
that l'll tell you what l think.
To execute a man for murder
if an immeasurably worse
punishment, than fits the crime.
A murder by sentence
is far more dreadful,
than committed by a criminal.
A man who is attacked by
robbers hopes he can escape.
Until the very last
moment.
ln some cases a man hopes on
even when his throat is cut.
Or runs away, or begs
for mercy.
But here this last hope, with
which it's much easier to die,
is taken away, for
certain, there's the sentence.
That certainty must be
the worst anguish.
And there's nothing worse
than that anguish.
Our Lord Christ spoke
of this anguish.
No man should be treated so.
lf you are really so anxious
for a smoke,
it might be managed.
See the door there,
under the stairs? But be quick.
- Cold?
-Very.
l never thought it would be
so cold here.
- Been abroad?
-Yes, from Switzerland.
My goodness!
l was there for my health.
What kind of malady?
A nervous malady, a kind of
epilepsy, convulsive spasms.
-Were you cured?
- No, they didn't cure me.
Stumped up your money for
nothing, and we believe them.
Gospel truth.
Gospel truth.
All they do is take hold
of our Russian money free.
Oh, you're quite wrong in my
particular instance!
l can't argue because l know
only my particular case,
but my doctor gave me money
for my return journey
and kept me at his own expense
for nearly 2 years.
Was there no one else to pay
for you?
No, Mr. Pavlicheff, who
had been supporting me there,
died 2 year ago.
l wrote here to Mrs. General
Epanchin,
a distant relative of mine,
but she didn't answer.
So eventually l came back.
Whom