representatives
of our high-class aristocracy?
Where are Pushkins, Lermontovs,
Gogols, Goncharovs, Turgenevs?!
- Goncharov was a merchant.
- Yes, that's right! What?
Goncharov was a merchant.
Exceptions only prove the rule.
Besides, it's a debatable issue
whether your Goncharov was a genius.
The catastrophe is imminent!
And in the face of that catastrophe,
we must unite,
while it's not too late,
and strike against
our common enemy.
Let me face the grubby-faced
not as Pavel Shcherbuk,
but as Richard the Lion-Hearted.
Enough of playing softies with them!
Let's say it right to their mugs:
hands off!
The cobbler should stick to his last!
Right to their mugs!
- Please count me out.
- Why's that, I wonder?
Because my father
was a common workman.
And if it doesn't please anybody here,
I can leave.
However, everything you have here
was bought with my money.
The fireworks, the cannon,
even the piano plays for my money.
And you go on living only because
I, the grubby-faced, is alive!
Do you get it, Pavel Petrovich?
All you can do is teach how to live,
to believe, to rule the people.
But you yourselves, are you living?
Are you believing? No!
You, Pavel Petrovich, what are you
so proud of? Your blue blood?
But no one will feed you for that
today.
You have to know how to do something.
And what can you do? Yell like a deer?
You're good for nothing, my friend.
And I, the grubby-faced...
To choose such a word! Grubby-faced!
I can do anything.
I can do anything.
My father was afraid of even
approaching this house.
And I'm discussing weather
with his Excellency here.
What are you doing, Gerasim?
It's no good, dear.
To reproach people for eating bread at
someone else's house. It's not nice.
Gerasim Kuzmich, will you please turn
down the lamp? It begins to smoke.
I just can't stand drafts and smoke.
The kerosene is bought for my
money, too.
It was delicious. Delicious.
Maman, I got so frightened!
Go on, eat, ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you very much.
I wasn't hungry when I came here,
so I hardly ate anything.
My dear, don't pay attention,
I beg you!
Come on,
give up this pretense.
It's been like that for years.
Should I dare look askance
at any of my creditors,
I'd be banished from that estate
tomorrow.
Either estate or honor!
I choose estate.
Gerasim Kuzmich can send us all to
the poorhouse, but he bears with us.
Your health, Gerasim Kuzmich!
My goodness...
Oh, God, it's so painful.
You see, Sophia?
Poor Russia, our kind country!
Leave Russia alone, for God's sake!
- But I wanted to say...
- What?
What did you want to say?
You've been uttering that cryptic
phrase for fifteen years now.
It's time to stop!
We talk and talk!..
Russian soul! People's good! Ideas!
Haven't your tongues withered yet?
You go on and on about Russia,
Shcherbuk about the grubby-faced...
One could climb the walls from our
wise ideas, the lamp begins to smoke.
We talk, eat, sleep, and do it all
with a clear conscience!
We've got European self-esteem,
though our development is Asian.
How can you? What you're saying
is immoral!
Sure, to admit your own inadequacy
is immoral.
But to amuse oneself
by feeding infants from the bottle
and giving the peasants one's tails,
that's not immoral.
- He's a bell!
- Yes! And you're a bell, too!
Only I'm tolling by myself,
and anyone can ring you.
When did you finish university?
Three years ago.
And what are you doing? Nothing.
And you will go on doing nothing
for another five years!
But I can't go and teach
at school, can I?
I'm not dying of starvation,
I've got a whole life ahead,
why hurry?
Everybody's tired of listening to you.
Don't listen to me, my dear!
Your papa sleeps and doesn't listen to
anyone. That's why he loves everybody.
What wrong did the old man do to you?
All right, Mr. Tchatsky,
you slapped everyone in the face.
Mr. Tchatsky is not looking for
the truth, he's just amusing himself.
They've got