B. ZAKHAVA as Kutuzov
N. TROFIMOV as Tushin
G. CHOKHONELIDZE as Bagration
N. RYBNIKOV as Denissov
V. MURGANOV as Alexander I
V. STRZHELCHIK as Napoleon
V. SAFRONOV as Emperor Francis
N. BUBNOV as General Mack
I. SOLOVYOV as Shinshin
Yu. CHEKULAYEV as Nesvitsky
P. SAVIN as Timokhin
A. SMIRNOV as Staff Officer
V. BADAYEV as Regiment Commander
ST. PETERSBURG. 1805
The celebrated Anna Pavlovna
Scherer,
most intimate lady-in-waiting
of the Empress Maria Fedorovna,
gave at her home the receptions
which she alone had a gift
for organizing.
Tonight, Anna Pavlovna
was "treating" her guests
to a French aristocrat,
the Vicomte de Mortemart,
who'd taken refuge in Russia from
the Antichrist Napoleon Buonaparte.
The execution of Duke of Enghien
was a state necessity.
Napoleon is great, and
the Revolution was a great thing...
Excuse me,
my dear Vicomte,
but this unfortunate soiree
at the Ambassador's
deprives me of the pleasure
to hear you out.
It saddens me to have to leave
this delightful party.
Scherer's salon gathered together
"the flower of the intellectual
high society of St. Petersburg",
as Anna Pavlovna herself
described it.
It was here, during these soirees,
that could best be measured
the political temperature of
the official spheres in the capital
which were close to the Court.
My husband's planning to desert me,
he may be killed.
Tell me, why must we have
this wretched war?
Are you going off to the war,
Prince?
General Kutuzov has been kind
enough to take me as aide-de-camp.
- And what about Lisa, your wife?
- She will go to the country.
Oh, it's sinful of you to deprive
us of your charming wife.
Why can't men live
without wars?
Take us, women,
we don't want anything.
We don't need anything.
What have you done to MIle Scherer?
Now she's going to be really ill.
This abbe is an interesting man,
but he sees it in the wrong light.
I think the eternal peace is
possible,
but, I don't know how to express it,
only not through
political balance.
People should not say everywhere
what they think.
Have you made your mind at last?
The Imperial Guards or diplomacy?
I don't know yet.
I don't like to be either.
He must be a Freemason anyway.
Let's talk about serious things.
Have you been to the Cavalry?
No. But that's what occurred to me,
and I wanted to tell you about it.
Now we're at war with Napoleon.
If it were a liberation war,
I would have understood.
I would have been the first
to enlist.
But to help Britain and Austria to
fight the greatest man in the world
is not good.
If everybody fought for their
convictions, there would be no war.
That would be wonderful!
Perhaps,
but that would never happen.
Tell me, why are you going off
to the war?
Why?
I don't know.
I must go.
Besides, I'm going...
I'm going because I don't like
the life I'm leading here.
I have often wondered how is it
Annette never got married.
You're really stupid, all of you
men, not to have married her.
I'm sorry to say you don't
understand anything about women.
- You're such a debater, M. Pierre.
- I'm arguing with your husband.
I still can't understand why
he wants to go off to war.
When are you leaving?
When I realized that I'll have to
interrupt all those dear relations...
And what's more,
you know, Andrei...
Why are you afraid, Lisa?
I don't understand you.
All men are egotists.
Just for a whim, he's abandoning
me, shutting me up in the country.
With my sister and my father,
remember.
But without my friends, all alone!
And I shouldn't be afraid?
I still fail to understand
why you're so afraid.
Your doctor told you to go to bed
earlier. It's time you were asleep.
I don't mind talking in front of
Monsieur Pierre.
I've wanted to say this for months,
Andrei.
Why have you changed so much?
What have I done to you?
Why are you deserting me
to go off to war?
You've been treating me as though
I were a child or an invalid.
You weren't