is finished. What's
going to happen to the steam heating?
- Are you making fun of us, Professor?
- Far from it...
So, what brings you here?
Be brief, it's my dinner time.
We've come to see you Professor
for the following reason.
We, the House Committee, have come to see
you after a general meeting of the tenants...
...of this block, at which the question
of the reallocation of living space stood...
Who stood on whom?
Be so good as to express
yourself more clearly.
The question of the reallocation
of living space stood on the agenda.
Do you realize, that
under the regulation...
...of April twelfth 1924...
...my flat is exempt from any and
every reallocation and resettlement?
We know that. But when the general meeting
after due consideration of the question...
...came to the conclusion that, by
and large, you occupy too much space.
- Far too much.
- You live alone in seven rooms!
I live and work in seven rooms.
And I should very much like an eighth.
I need a room for a library.
- An eighth? That's cool.
- Incredible.
Excuse me, Professor, but the general
meeting of the tenants
of this block requests you...
...as a matter of labour discipline...
...to give up your dining
room voluntarily.
- No one in Moscow has dining rooms.
- Not even Isadora Duncan.
And also that you should give up the
consulting room. Your study can double
perfectly well as a consulting room.
- Quite so.
- Is that right, comrades?
Where am I supposed
to partake of food?
In the bedroom.
I expect that is what
Isadora Duncan does.
Perhaps she dines in her study and
dissects rabbits in her bathroom.
Perhaps. But I am not Isadora Duncan.
I will dine in the dining room and
operate in the operating theatre.
Pray inform the general meeting of this.
And meanwhile kindly allow me...
...to take supper where
all normal people do so.
And not in the hall and
not in the nursery!
In that case, Professor,
in view of your stubborn resistance...
...we shall complain about you
to higher authorities.
Just a moment. Please, wait a minute.
Put me through to Pyotr Alexandrovitch.
Professor Preobrazhensky.
Pyotr Alexandrovitch? I am glad I was
able to reach you. Thank you, I am well.
Pyotr Alexandrovitch,
your operation is cancelled.
And so are all my other operations.
I am giving up my practice in Moscow
and in Russia in general.
Four people have just come in to see me.
One of whom is a woman dressed as a man.
Two men are armed with revolvers.
They are terrorizing me!
Pardon... Professor...
I cannot work under such conditions
and have no right to.
So I shall cease my activities,
lock up my flat, and go to Sochi.
I can leave the keys with Shvonder.
Let him operate.
But on one condition.
I don't care who, where or what,
...provided it's the sort of paper
that would keep Shvonder...
...or whoever from even approaching
the door of my apartment!
The ultimate in certificates.
Factual!
Real! A true protection!
I don't want my name even mentioned!
As far as they are concerned, I am dead.
Hand the receiver to Shvonder.
Would you mind, you're wanted
on the telephone.
Hello. Yes... I'm Shvonder, the chairman
of the House Management Committee.
Yes. We were only acting according
to the regulations... I understand.
The Professor has quite
exceptional privileges anyway.
We know about his work.
We were going to leave him
no less than five rooms...
This is a disgrace.
If there were a discussion now I would
prove to this Pyotr Alexandrovitch...
Pardon me, do you wish to open
a discussion right now?
I can understand your irony,
Professor.
We will leave now. Still, as chairman of
the cultural department of this house I...
- Chairwoman.
- Chairwoman.
...I suggest that you buy some of these
magazines sold for the benefit
of the children of Germany.
- Fifty kopecks a copy.
- No. I will not.
- But why not?
- I don't want to.
- You have no sympathy for the children
of Germany? - I