Gorbachev. Heaven (2020) - full transcript
Changes that reverberated throughout the world wrought by one man. A film summing-up the life of a man who changed the world in the 20th century. Gorbachev's short time in power was marked by the collapse of this empire. He was the architect of Glasnost and Perestroika, policies that gave the citizens of the Soviet Union - what Ronald Reagan called "the Evil Empire" - a chance to be free. The Soviet empire collapsed under him - and he is condemned by his own people. With this burden of the past, this lonely old man is living the last days of his life in an empty house in the suburbs near Moscow.
...and changed his country
and the whole world forever.
Mikhail Gorbachev said the famous words
"If not me, who? And if not now, when?"
He made a reform in his country
and simultaneously changed the world,
making it safer.
more peaceful, and a better place.
Glasnost and Perestroika -
he opened his government,
He let freedom into his country.
I don’t know what it is.
Sharon, take this off me.
She fastened it to me.
I think this is the border.
I want to cross it.
Freedom!
Dear friends!
There are not many people in my lifetime
about whom I can say full-heartedly,
here's the man who changed history forever.
Today let's celebrate
one of the most important people
of the 20th century.
my hero, my friend Mikhail Gorbachev.
GORBACHEV. PARADISE.
Do you know that
I almost kicked the bucket?
No. - No?
Seriously.
Guys, my health...
...has radically deteriorated
Most of all I suffer from...
...the change of weather.
Especially...
...the solar storms.
Magnetic storms are murderous.
You can name our conversation
"A dialog with a Weirdo".
Do you feel yourself a free person
- Yes, I do.
How does it manifest?
I can speak out.
I can express my opinion. I write a lot.
And I write about things
as openly as I see them.
But who hears your statements in Russia
Who has the opportunity
to hear you in Russia?
Everyone has. Whoever wants to.
But there are newspapers..
This is only recently
since we encountered...
when they refused to publish me.
They tell me - that's it,
the Gorbachev era has collapsed.
You remember?
And I say - who said that?
It's just beginning.
All nations should have
an opportunity,
freedom...
breadth..
Do you think freedom is something organic
for the Russian nation?
Or does democracy mean
violence against the Russians?
You know, one can find both
when answering this question.
Absolutely.
But there were always
those who moved things on.
Right, but they were
all either deported
or hanged or forced
to leave Russia.
Russia has always returned to non-freedom
as its natural form of existence.
Nevertheless, the answer to that
was given to you not by me
but by our genuine democrats.
(Pushkin's poem) "While freedom's
flame within us lives,"
'While we by honour's voice are guided,'
"To Russia, comrade, let us give"
"Our spirits whole and undivided."
Come on, focus on this.
"Deep in Siberia's mines..."
"Let's subdue our proud..."
No, no! "Subdue YOUR proud..."
You're reciting it wrong.
This is not about you.
"Subdue YOUR!"
"...spirit. Your
crushing toil..."
..and lofty thought...
Shall not be wasted.
uss/a shall from her
age-old sleep arise
"And despotism impatient crushing..."
- "Upon its ruins our names incise!"
The name "Gorbachev"
will be on that list, for sure.
Can I say something to the
ones present, off the record?
Sure. We're listening.
What you’re offering us is onanism.
That's not so bad, either.
- Isn't it?
Do you indulge in it?
- Haven't done it a long time.
But, if I understood you correctly,
you compared the search for freedom
in Russia with onanism -
that is, with receiving unnatural satisfaction.
And I am ready to agree with you.
Though it's very disappointing.
That's what onanism stands for.
Where's the democracy?
Why're you asking me?
That's right. It's not a question to you.
- Absolutely not.
Ii still view myself as a socialist.
Frankly, I still see Lenin as our god.
Socialism is a sturdy point of view.
And the more people...
will find new horizons in life,
get used to them,
the greater will be the need for socialism.
But some believe
that I have destroyed socialism.
You know,
I wrote my high school graduation essay
and got the highest mark.
I did not choose a literary topic
but I chose from the free topics,
which was as follows:
"Stalin is our military glory,
Stalin is our youth and mission. ”
This is my point of view.
I was a person...
with a quite good education
and a sense of responsibility.
And then I had to...
especially when I became
Secretary General...
and got acquainted with the materials...
that had emerged...
This is terrible!
All these lists of executions
carried out over tens of years.
Lists of a hundred, two hundred people...
These materials are so terrifying -
in both the human and the Party aspects
Stalin was not a socialist?
I think he was rather
an authoritarian person.
But now millions of
people support Stalin
Which ones of our
leaders were socialist
I was.
Who else?
It will be very interesting for you to say,
"When I asked Gorbachev, he said, ‘I was.'
When I asked, ‘Who else?’
he said, ‘No one.’
That was awesome!"
Yes...
Life matters the most.
That's it.
And then there's how we use it,
and how it uses us.
The day...
Is it the 12th of June, the Day of Russia?
Right? I think so.
Tents are set up in Red Square
and tables are laid for the feast.
Two groups are walking to meet each other -
Putin and me.
If we personify it.
"Hello."
- "Hello."
I say, "Long time, no see."
“You don’t say.”
I say, “No..."
"You're evading me."
- "Why so? Why?"
"Why? You set up
three meetings with me
and you did not arrive three times."
Don't cry.
Just imagine what I went through.
And he began with the fact
that life is complicated.
Life is life.
And off we went.
They went where they had to go,
and we went to the Kremlin Palace.
They went to the square,
to have their barbecue.
But we had already been there.
An incident that explains
that we had already parted our ways.
Are we parting?
Let's go?
- Let's go.
So long, guys.
Should I help you - Wait, Volodya...
No, you won’t lift me like this.
My arms can still lift me.
Right, you've been sitting deeply...
Look at this, damn!
- You’ve been sitting for a long time.
I'm getting more
work to do, not less..
But no strength.
Can you turn it a little bit?
That's it. That's it.
Shall we?
- You stand firm, Volodya.
Stand firm. And I'll stand even firmer.
That's it. Great.
- Right. Right.
Friends installed this elevator
for Gorbachev
when they learned that it took him
about an hour
to get to his own bedroom
on the second floor.
By the time Gorbachev resigned as
the head of the powerful Soviet empire,
all his property consisted of a
rather modest apartment in Moscow.
We'll leave on the left side.
Down the stairs...
You go down ahead.
- Yeah, yeah.
Stand there, on the threshold.
That's it, come on.
Vitaly!
-Yes, Mikhail Sergeevich.
Just a second. I'm running.
Vitaly, where have you been?
- I'm always here.
Round the clock with you.
When Gorbachev voluntarily resigned
from the post of the head of the USSR,
the Soviet republics
were given the opportunity
to become independent states.
The party leaders of these republics,
subordinate to Gorbachev,
immediately took advantage of this
and turned themselves
into rulers of new states.
Some still govern their countries
to the current day.
And some have already handed over power
to their children, by inheritance.
And in 1991,
during the collapse of the USSR,
these heads of the states
generously gave Gorbachev this house,
although for temporary use.
You're doing fine.
You're young. Look at your cheeks!
Thank you, Mikhail Sergeevich.
So nice to hear.
Well, we can invite guests, right?
Sure. We have the potatoes. Dumplings.
Dumplings should be boiled, right?
You'll tell me when, right?
There are some snacks.
You can sit and talk for awhile.
And you'll tell me
when the hot dish is to be served.
Although there's the potatoes.
Now listen...
Natasha, where should I put this?
Napkin? You lay it on your knees.
Potatoes...
- Count them. There's more of them.
More?
- You must count them.
Have they brought this?
- No, it's from your garden.
I went there this morning.
It's your favourite.
I'll bring the spoon for the aspic.
Do we have vodka?
- We do, Mikhail Sergeevich.
And beer?
Sure! How can you do without beer?
I'll go and check.
Natasha, can we sit down?
- Sure, you can.
This is to take before. And that's after.
- It's for me, right?
I'll put it there.
Tanya there wants to give you a treat.
He had some sausage.
He had the cheese.
But he's an old boy, skin and bones.
Welcome to my place.
This is my home.
Given by the state. But for life
It's not bad.
In our situation...
saying "for life" means much,
since they gave me...
Yeltsin gave me two
or three days to get lost.
What money do you live on?
Me and everyone around me, my relatives,
live and lived, as Volodya knows,
on the money I earned
going around lecturing.
There was a case when I returned home
with the royalties of 400,000 dollars.
But that was just one case.
All the rest were less.
Have you privatized this house?
No.
What about your neighbours?
- I don't know.
But we do.
- Did they privatize?
Heck with them.
- Right.
But this also tells something
about who the current ones are...
But my conscience is calm!
Raisa also hated things like that.
We were conscientious people.
Do your granddaughters come to Russia
to visit you? - Not anymore.
Do they still have their rooms here? No?
They have them over there.
We bought them.
We had saved some money
And when our granddaughters got married..
We spent it all,
giving half a million each for example.
Live.
There's a flat, live.
They are all together there.
Everything is pretty clear about them.
As to me, things are more complicated.
While Raisa was alive,
they all used to come around.
I still can’t calm down.
After Raisa Maximovna died,
you said a couple of times in public
that the meaning of life is gone.
It's gone.
- Is it?
It's gone.
What's the meaning of life then?
What's the meaning of life?
Can it be true that
the meaning of life
is to simply love one woman
and, I don’t know, have children with her?
Isn't the meaning of life
in something higher?
But what can be higher...
than the feeling of being in love
and being loved by a woman?
(Russian song)
"There're so many nice girls!"
"There're so many endearing names!"
"But only one of them bothers me,"
"Keeping away my calm and sleep"
I'm starting to forget...
I used to know many poems by heart.
I love poetry.
'"Dear mate, you will stay in my heart."
"It was destined, our separation"
"Still foretells new meeting
from the start."
That's Yesenin. A great poet.
(Ukrainian) The mountain is high...
And there's a forest under the mountain
A green and thick forest
A real heaven
There's a river by the forest
Shining like a mirror
Towards the green valley
It's running away
On the coast, in a quiet place,
The boats are tied
Three willows are bowing there
As if they were in grief
In grief for the beautiful summer to pass
With the blows of cold wind
Taking their leaves away
To be taken away, by the stream
To you, dear river...
some consolation...
The spring will return
But youth will never return
It will never come back again
I'm five years old.
I'm breathing my last.
Dying.
There is a candle
at the head of the bed.
Everyone's crying in Privolnoye.
My mother is crying.
It cannot be helped.
What could you do back in 1936?
Finally, some woman showed up
and advised them, “Find
some good fresh honey.
Give him a jar of good fresh honey."
They started looking,
found it and brought it to me.
Small teapots for tea leaves.
The honey was there.
Well, I remember everything.
And, left alone...
I turned and took that teapot,
and drank it all at once.
Three days later I was already running.
Rather than dying.
And surprisingly:
I took it..
and the lid fell off.
I can still remember the
ringing sound of the falling lid.
That's how all our
mechanisms work.
Well, I can go on with these stories.
We were already living in Stavropol,
at the highest point,
where the party committee was situated.
Winds were blowing from the steppe
the fragrance was simply intoxicating.
Incredible.
Raisa and I had a habit back then.
I drove her in a car
some fifty kilometres from the centre,
where wheat fields stretched...
endless!
There you could see the quail mating.
When the cornfields are in bloom,
as they're ripening,
the quails are running mad.
Love until death.
Oh God. You can live with it.
This is a story about how you
lived in heaven.
And now in hell.
Oh my...
Mikhail Sergeyevich, keep it.
Keep it for now.
I won’t keep it in my pocket.
Why do I need it?
No, Mikhail Sergeyevich, it goes with this.
Let it be for now.
- Well, I don't need it. Take it away.
They still have some more questions.
Why would I care?
We were never separated.
Always together.
Always hand in hand.
It's amazing how it can be this way.
They called me henpecked.
And I never refuted.
I'd rather supported it.
I wanted it to be that way.
It compliments and supports her.
When I began to live together with Raisa,
I made inquiries about her.
We believed that her mother was Russian.
And her father, Titarenko...
was a Ukrainian.
Like in my family.
But my mother is Ukrainian,
and my father is Russian.
Her grandfather was executed,
her mother’s father.
The whole family got scattered
across the country.
And...
I said to her, "You know what struck me?"
She asked, "What?"
“That you are not Russian but Ukrainian.”
“So what's the difference to you?”
she asks.
"Well, now I understand why
sometimes you are so mean..."
By the way, my grandfather, my mother’s
father, also stood trial.
And was sentenced to execution by shooting.
He was in charge of the collective farm
that he established.
And then the assistant regional prosecutor
summoned him.
"What is it?"
'As a matter of fact," he says,
this is no case for execution."
No crime has been committed whatsoever.
He was released
after 14 months of imprisonment.
He suffered from all kinds of torture.
His hands were broken with the door...
In my opinion,
it was because of his commitment to...
Trotskyism.
Why the fuck did he need this Trotskyism?
I remember his return.
Only the closest had gathered.
I was sitting on the oven-couch,
all ears.
And he says,
“I'm telling you so that you knew.
But no one needs to be told.
I'm also not telling."
“Stalin is not to blame,” he always said.
In the 10th form, I joined the Party.
They were so glad -
I asked them for advice.
They were so glad
that I joined the Communists.
Right, and...
They were also glad
that I was going to continue my studies.
I sent in my documents
but there was no response for two weeks.
I had sent a request
with a prepaid reply...
...as I realized.
The answer came,
“You are enrolled.
Student hostel granted. "
At the Law School...
of Moscow State University.
And when I left...
I was so happy about going to Moscow.
To Moscow!
And then I raised my head
and looked around.
To wave goodbye.
And I saw my grandfather, Pantelei,
the one who was sentenced to execution.
He was standing at the window of our cabin
and crying.
I can’t forget him to this day.
After this shooting,
Mikhail Gorbachev moved to the hospital,
to be under the supervision of doctors
around the clock.
Well, you could at least
write a couple of words -
who are you, and what is your purpose,
so that Mikhail Sergeevich understood...
But once in the hospital,
Mikhail Sergeevich
made a special appointment at his office
in the Gorbachev Foundation
to complete the shooting of our film.
After the Kremlin,
as an office for his foundation,
Gorbachev was given the premises of
one of the liquidated party institutions.
But soon the building was taken away.
Then Gorbachev decided to build
his own building to house the foundation,
and he did build it.
But today, to keep the foundation running
a significant part of the
premises must be leased out.
Hello, Mikhail Sergeyevich!
The Gorbachev Foundation is left with
only one wing in their own building.
But it was important for us to understand
how a person,
having climbed the party ladder
of the communist regime
from the very bottom to the very top,
raised to power
largely owing to personal efforts of
the head of the KGB of the USSR,
having gained power, in fact,
over the entire communist empire,
which controlled almost half of the world,
realized the need,
and then decided, essentially alone,
without supporters
among the then government members,
to begin the destruction
of the existing regime.
They're waiting for you!
- What's there to wait for? I'm ready
(Ukrainian) The Cossacks
drove home from the Don,
They deceived Galya,
they took her with them.
Oh, you, Galya, young Galya...
ow could one man take a radical decision
for the smashing blow,
bypassing the entire system
of the state apparatus.
starting a direct dialogue with the nation,
offering them democratization
and unexpected freedom?
How was he left without understanding
of the same nation,
betrayed and even cursed by so many
of the same nation?
We need to be able to make this film.
For some reason I believe...
that there should be such a picture,
and we must not spoil it.
Time shows that my strength is leaving me.
Seriously.
Does it mobilize or demobilize you?
Both.
Volodya, lend me your hand.
Good morning.
Director, come on!
Okay, let’s go on.
Now you are transferred to Moscow,
to the Central Committee,
to manage the agricultural affairs.
So, what's next?
As soon as they elected me,
security immediately appeared around.
They accommodated me,
gave me a hotel room.
Assigned the car and security detail.
I'm sitting at night in
that office and thinking:
What am I mixed up in? And why?
was the Tsar and God there, in Stavropol.
In the South.
Life was good.
A phone rang.
It's Andropov.
"Where are you now?"
I say, "Well, they assigned me here."
“Well, what are you doing?”
“Nothing. Sitting and thinking
what am I mixed up in?"
We were close to him since we..
...worked together in Stavropol.
“Can you come to me now?”
"All right".
And I went to the square, to the KGB.
To his office.
Arrived...
"How're you doing?"
" I got everything I need;
now I have to work," I say.
They promised
to bring my family here later.
Everything is solved. Thank you,
Yuri Vladimirovich, for your support,
even though you criticize
"When have I criticized you?"
“In my opinion, every time.
You don’t even notice. ”
Yeah...
“I see,” he says, “that everyone
wants to quickly wheedle you."
[Prime Minister] Kosygin is whispering
something to you, giving a smile. ”
I think, "Well, that's a
Chekist on a mission."
Right.
He says, “Misha, I want
to make it clear to you.
Brezhnev is the main issue.
He himself several times
has raised a question
about his retirement.
We have an agreement,
and we have made a decision
to use him wisely
It would be important to have
a centre figure, able to unite. ”
“Yuri Vladimirovich,” I say,
“I have no complaints whatsoever
against Leonid Ilyich [Brezhnev].”
“Well, that's all for now. "
So, I joined them,
as a matter of fact.
And then all hell broke loose...
Once, during a
vacation with our families,
Andropov's and mine,
while the ladies
had gone for a walk,
we also took a stroll together.
And I said, “Yuri Vladimirovich,
since we know each other well,
and get along all right,
I wanted to ask you a question.
In my opinion, no one thinks
about the future of the country.
The Politburo, in my
opinion, does not."
“What else are we thinking
of?!” he immediately reacted.
I say, “Yuri Vladimirovich,
we decided to speak our mind.
Take our visits to the Mausoleum
before the November parade.
We always have our pictures
taken before we start for the parade.
Here is the last picture,
look at it carefully.
Can you see at least
one young face there? ”
"So what?
Are old people no longer good enough?"
- “This is not the point,” I say.
"We are a country of forests, right?
There is no forest without undergrowth.”
He remembered it until his
dying day. Well, undergrowth!
When I was elected the
Secretary of the Central Committee,
and I went to pay tribute,
Leonid Ilyich [Brezhnev]
reacted to this election as follows...
I approached him, "Leonid Ilyich,
thank you for your trust,
I will do my best."
He did not even look back at me
and did not reach out his hand, nothing.
"Yeah,” he said, “Kulakov
was a good man.
I was appointed, and he had
proposed me as a candidate.
And now? "Oh, my
goodness," I thought.
"What am I mixed up in?"
The situation on the eve of
Perestroika was the way...
it seemed, we would
never get out of this swamp.
It seemed that everything will
go to hell and we'll be in deep shit,
to put it in simple words.
As soon as the opportunity arose
and Glasnost was proclaimed...
it was no less than...
by comparison, like clean air.
People need freedom.
Without it a person won't develop and
won't understand what's happening at all.
People should know
what's happening -
in the country, with power,
what's happening abroad,
how other people live.
Glasnost!
And our business is to
develop it and to cultivate it.
Our interest is in the
ones who live today.
And who eat bread from
the fields of Perestroika.
I remembered
my routine as a
Secretary General.
Won't you have it?
- No.
Will you have a
cheese pie with tea?
What kind of pie?
- The usual, cheese pie.
Raise your hands,
who wants to have tea.
I'll have coffee,
I'll bring it over.
Did Europe take the
chance provided by you?
I think it did.
What about Russia?
Russia, too.
What do you mean?
- What do I mean?
How did Russia take the chance?
We live in peace.
In peace we live.
We live in a
dictatorship, actually.
Well, you know..
what we have to do,
go through and get over.
It takes time - years and years,
enormous effort and skills.
It's not that easy.
Why is it "so easy" in Eastern Europe?
The Czech Republic, for example?
They've been living in a
democratic society for thirty years.
But we're still looking
back in the past.
What about you? You're
writing and making films -
and think that you've been
deprived of democracy?
I think I've been
deprived of democracy.
I think there was democracy under Gorbachev
and that's it.
Ok, during the first
years of Yeltsin.
Even during the last years of Yeltsin,
when he gave power to Putin,
there was no longer democracy.
All in all, we have something to discuss.
And you have enough topics for your film.
You'll make your money. Bless you.
I did not understand your answer.
I did not understand
the answer. You mean...
Even the attitude towards you...
If you're a hero in Europe...
You're a hero in
Europe, no doubt.
No doubt. you're a
hero for European states.
For Russia... I wouldn't say so.
Say it. Who's stopping you?
I want to hear from you.
- No.
You don't say it, because you do not want to.
In Russia, you are not a hero.
I cannot agree with this.
What about your 0.8 percent rating?
Right... all that...
History is a lady of whims.
It's true.
I believe that you will
eventually be a hero in Russia.
I am convinced of this.
But, I'm afraid that it won't
happen either today or tomorrow.
Do not be afraid! Because I
tell you -it takes much time.
And a lot of
patience. And skills.
That is, becoming smarter.
This is a huge process...
that can only be
compared with eternity.
Hello.
- Hello.
Hello again.
Is life going on?
- Sure, it's going on.
Is everybody getting it?
- They do. The interviewers.
But he's standing.
When we're all sitting.
Is it hot?
- Yeah. It's hot, it's hot...
Burns.
Who's there in
the mirror? Putin?
Gazing. Saying something,
nodding his head.
Volodya!
I have never been left frustrated
by an open direct conversation
with the highest ...
The first president we contacted
was the most inveterate person.
When we met with Reagan,
on the first day...
It was in Switzerland.
I arrived by air, and he met me.
And we talked for the
first time, one-to-one.
Apart from the delegations.
We had a talk, we
had a great talk.
The beginning was
not promising at all.
I went out and our people asked me,
"Mikhail Sergeyevich, how did it go?"
“Did you succeed
with this falcon?”
say, "He's a real..."
These early animals...?
Vultures ?
Dinosaurs?
- Right.
“A real dinosaur,” I said.
Well, he did not
leave it unanswered.
They told him what
I said. And he...
A couple of days later
there was a coverage on this,
and they asked him what was
his impression about Gorbachev.
“A stubborn Bolshevik,” he said.
Was he right? Of course not!
Then everything
developed with obstacles.
For example, when I
arrived on a visit to America,
where we slowly
began to sign papers...
And we agreed eventually
that nuclear war
is unacceptable,
and there can
be no winner in it!
If he starts it, we respond.
we start it, he responds.
And it's enough to blow up
the whole motherf***king world!
Motherf***king world...
They say,
the fact that the
USSR ceased to exist,
many countries of the world
in Europe and America -
is seen as your achievement.
And how do you think? You
want to deprive me of the merit?
No, I don't. I want to
understand your point of view...
I told you...
what I told you.
Why don't you
want to talk about it?
About what?
- About the collapse of the USSR.
Why?
- Well, you're not talking about it.
That I made it collapse?
- No. You're not talking about it at all.
You're not talking about the
role of perestroika, glasnost,
and democratization in
the collapse of the USSR.
First of all,
I cannot agree with a
formulation that the Soviet Union...
our state..
became a victim of democracy.
No.
I fought a serious battle,
fought to the end, as they say,
so that...
for the sake of preservation
of the Soviet Union,
that was my position.
Read any of my earlier speeches.
How can I give up on myself?
Ok, now another question.
Latvians, Estonians and
Lithuanians love you for...
thanks to you, they got freedom.
I do not want to deprive
them of their right to love.
Listen, Mikhail Sergeyevich,
your answers are really cunning.
I have answered
you very honestly.
No.
- Honestly.
But these are mutually
exclusive things.
Either you are for
preserving the USSR,
or you give the right to the Latvians
to love you because you ruined it.
But these are mutually
exclusive things.
That's what you'll
write. So write it.
But I'll stick to my words.
But that's not fair. How
is it not fair? Motherf***...
I'm already using
filthy language.
Right, but you can either be for
the Baltic States gaining freedom,
or for preserving the USSR.
No.
- Then explain it.
Like I said.
- What did you say?
Someone said I
had to shoot them.
Well, if you give the order to fire
in one case, and yet in another.
No, that's not right.
I think I did the right thing.
But they fired in Vilnius.
Did the Soviet Army fire or not?
Confusing business.
They are trying to
make me responsible.
So that they could
bring me to trial.
Are you afraid of trial?
What? - You're a brave man,
you're not afraid of anything.
Would you like to
be dragged to court?
I won’t let anybody
make something up
and then make me
responsible for their fiction.
Let someone's
plan come true. No.
Look...
What's happening?
- What is it?
I don't know.
Is there any mistake
that you would not repeat?
I was self-confident.
Excessive confidence
grew into self-confidence.
Everyone says: mistakes.
Gorbachev’s mistakes.
Have some mercy!
There's no one so
talented and capable
hat they could compete
with the Almighty.
Or His authorized
representatives.
No. It happens to everyone.
You succeed in many things
and you fail in many things.
At times they say,
“Go at full throttle!”
And at times they
say, "Go to bed."
What about the Court of God?
"But there is Court of
God, you, evil manifold!"
"The terrible court... it waits"
Let's go on?
What about the Putsch
- What?
The coup d'etat.
How did you fail to notice the coup
lotted by your associates under your nose?
It means I'm weak.
I didn’t chop off anyone's head.
But I don't regret that I did not use
the methods of my predecessors.
Even Lenin's.
If this or that situation,
that we cannot define now,
makes us lose our mind...
then what can we even talk about?
Then it's better...
to have a drink.
And then there is Yeltsin's truth,
who can drink half a bucket of booze.
And go and relieve himself...
behind the wheel of a plane.
But during the
hard-liners’ coup,
It was Yeltsin who saved you.
Do I understand it correctly?
Yeltsin helped.
And interfered much.
My point of view. And
my responsible position.
They told me afterwards,
"Why didn’t you send him away?"
Besides, until that time,
I had all rights,
reasons, and motives.
And, certainly, I had power.
But it’s not my cup of tea.
I would be in a
conflict with myself.
It struck everyone,
my closest ones.
That I'm... forgiving.
This would probably suit...
...a tsar
not the Secretary of
the Central Committ
When Boris Yeltsin
came to power,
he ordered Gorbachev
to leave in three days.
But on the next day...
...although we had
agreed on a due date...
he arrived early in the
morning with his heroes
and drank a bottle of...
...whiskey...
When I called, they told me,
"They're already partying in your office."
This suggests one's
impertinent nature.
Fool.
Madcap.
The Constitution of 1993..
was in his face and likeness.
Because it is an
autocratic constitution.
Right-
So you did not use the
army to maintain your power?
No, I fought to the end,
did whatever I could do.
But too many things
were happening at once.
The hard-liners, of
course, played a role.
It weakened my position.
And supported these scoundrels.
You must know that Gorbachev
and Yeltsin are put on a par
both as democrats and liberators,
also traitors and destroyers of the USSR.
What do you think of it?
No. It is a big difference.
Yeltsin and Gorbachev
-this is a big difference.
Ultimately, are you or Yeltsin to
blame for the collapse of the Union?
I would
there is no direct liability.
Though I could prevent this,
and it had to be done.
He just had to be
sent away from here.
He had demonstrated that
he oscillates, that he is torn.
That is, Yeltsin made
the Soviet Union collapse?
I said what I said.
But you didn’t say anything!
- That's good.
Mikhail Sergeyevich,
believe me, this is not...
Listen. Vitaly...
- Yes.
Case closed.
Around one o'clock tomorrow?
Approximately...
- Around one.
Mikhail Sergeevich,
this is our director, Alvis.
You've seen his
"Shukshin's Stories".
There'll be a new
play about you.
Have you already
written the play?
No. That's why we came to you.
You have to come
when it's ready.
No, there are some ideas I
wanted to discuss with you.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I'm from
Riga. You understood that, right?
We've planned to make a play
about you and about Raisa Maximovna.
There will be only two actors. It
will be about love and freedom.
You said your mother
loved to sing a song..
(Ukranian) "The mountain is high
And there's a forest under the mountain"
But I didn't find the
melody of this song.
First, the lyrics.
"The mountain is high And
there's a forest under the mountain
"A green and thick
forest, a real heaven"
She was Ukrainian.
- Yes. Can you translate it into Russian?
No! - To be able to understand the meaning
You don't have to do it.
- You can understand it.
So that I could understand.
We'll translate it for you.
A green and thick
forest, a real heaven...
What is there that
you don't understand?
'To you, dear river,
the spring will return..."
"But youth will never return, it
will never come back again..."
Did Raisa Maximovna sing well?
She could sing along.
But she knew less...
Songs? - Ten times less.
- What did you sing?
A couple of them...
...were my favourite.
I was singing
while I was shaving.
What exactly? Tell us.
Just a sec.
Misty morning, grey morning...
Sorrowful cornfields,
covered with snow
Willing or not, you'll
remember the past
Remember the
faces long forgotten
Remember the
faces long forgotten...
Beautiful. Beautiful.
Raisa did not close the door and
listened to this concert almost every day.
I'm shaving and singing.
She sang along,
right? Wasn't ashamed?
Yes, but she was
not a match to Mother.
Are there any of
your letters left?
We did have letters,
but she burnt them.
All of them? She burnt them all?
At least I haven't found any.
Maybe, when we check the archives...
...when they will check, not
me... they may find some more.
You said that
Perestroika killed Raisa.
I've read it somewhere. The
excitement, apparently, she experienced...
Me too.
- You too?
Who kissed who first? Did she
kiss you first? Or you kissed her?
I see. On the street
or in the room?
In Sokolniki Pond.
Pond? Did you go swimming?
Cool.
I wanted to drown her. And
then I decided to kiss her.
And what did you quarrel about?
If you had any quarrels?
What were they about?
I'm not a sweet person
and she wasn't either.
That's why I'm asking,
what did you quarrel about?
Once I said to her,
“For God's sake,
don’t piss me off.”
I’d only have to raise my hand once
-and it would no longer be needed. "
She reacted to this the way that I
thought, “Well, you're a stupid bear”
How did she react?
- No, I said that to myself.
I know. But what about
her? How did she react?
She reacted so that...
she burst into tears,
"Are you going to beat me?"
My first idea
was... I thought...
after my Dad and Mum
you're the third person wh®
influenced my fate so much.
Who changed my fate.
And there are hundreds of millions like me.
You know, Mikhail Sergeevich...
Alvis and us, we are interested -the
man who just changed the world...
There was Lenin, right.
Lenin changed his age.
He changed it like...
Changed, only with a negative value.
But Lenin was not alone.
There was a bunch of them.
But he was the brains.
- In this case, one man changed.
The question is, what
kind of person are you?
hat's why Alvis is reading heaps of books
Where do you come
from? Your Mum, the song...
How does it actually happen?
You have changed the course of
history, ehanged the whole planet...
Well, perhaps we
can finish with this.
o I'm taking the
cabbage and the apples?
Yes, yes, do it...
Mikhail Sergeyevich,
let’s take it off.
What is it? Quiet!
It’s name?
- Fabio.
An Italian. Translation?
An Italian.
- Charming.
Fabka.
Fabioso.
Some bread.
Tanya, do not forget the aspic.
Have some salad,
Mikhail Sergeyevich.
Your assistant makes it himself.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I made it.
- Should be tasty.
Yes. Sure, it should.
From start to finish.
Well, I am now . Yes?
No way.
-Why?
You can’t entice me... eating.
Aren't you hungry?...
Check. Check. Check.
Is there any beer? Pour it in!
How much is it? Five
roubles? Pour it out!
How much is it? Five roubles? Pour it out!
Oh, Mikhail
Sergeyevich, I'm so glad.
I think this is the first time
we're meeting like this, right?
Have you been here before?
- We also have not.
Can you imagine what
New Year is like for u
Have you been living
here for a long time?
35 years. - In here.
That's why we have to raise a glass...
For that. It's the most important thing.
I've lived for twenty
years without a wife
and I feel that it is no good.
So let Tanya say a toast.
We are at her house. Say it.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I can’t
imagine how I'd live without men.
I can’t imagine. He’s my rock.
I knew who I was giving the toast to.
- The Bastion of everything.
Right. In general, be healthy.
Here's to this union!
Peace and friendship.
I am very glad to see you.
- Guys!
Nothing doing, old
age takes its toll.
Time flies.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I just saw it...
- Our time flies.
Your pill...
We don't want to forget it.
There's a heap of them.
Would you like some water?
I'll bring it.
- Sit down. There's no need.
Here they are,
Mikhail Sergeevich.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, which New
Year do you remember especially well?
Since your childhood?
Oh, there's so many...
Come on, buddy. Good boy.
Good boy. A miracle...
Nice little nose...
Say something on New Year's Eve.
What you are hoping
for. And what your are not.
We've become quiet.
Quiet because
we're lost in thought.
What will happen this year.
What are our thoughts
and calculations for this year.
Great, indeed.
And time is flowing, not dripping.
I don’t sleep much
at night. I think.
I think a lot.
If it’s not a secret,
tell us about what.
Hands up!
Why are they pestering me, eh?
Shall we probably
bark at them? Or not?
We'll still need them.
Such a good boy.
Will you get it?
Hallo?
This is not Volodya.
This is me.
Yeah,things happen.
It's t he New Year.
It is a pity that you are
not there, in this small...
company of friends.
I wish you a happy New Year
from the bottom of my heart,
as a brother.
I'm in the hospital for now.
I cannot really say I'm better.
But there is some progress.
I often think about you.
Where shall I invite you
when we take power again?
All right, I won’t take power.
Bye.
We strive to do something
important and useful for other people
And to help those who
require our support,
to make them happy by giving
them presents and our attention.
Such sincere impulses, pure
thoughts and selfless generosity
are the true magic of the New Year holiday.
It brings out the
best in people.
We’re living with wonderful
impressions since childhood.
They come back every New Year,
when we hug our loved
ones, our parents,
prepare surprises for our
children and grandchildren,
decorate the New Year tree with them
and unpack once again paper cut-outs,
baubles and glass garlands.
These, sometimes ancient,
but beloved family trinkets
give their warmth to
the younger generations.
Of course, each family has
its own New Year traditions,
but everyone is united by an
atmosphere of kindness and care.
May the happiness of mutual
understandin be in your home forever,
Happy holidays and a
Happy New Year 202
Precisely calculated.
Hello, New Year!
Hooray!
Russia - our holy nation...
Russia - our beloved country.
A mighty will, great glory
These are yours for all time!
Be glorious!
our free Fatherland!
Free Fatherland.
And who brought freedom?
Dear compatriots.
fellow citizens,
as a result of the
newly formed situation,
creation of he Commonwealth
of Independent States,
I cease my activities
in the post of the
USSR President.
I am making this decision out of
considerations based on principle.
I have firmly stood for
independence, self-rule of nations,
for the sovereignty
of the republics.
but at the same time for
preservation of the union state,
the unity of the country
Events went a different way.
The policy prevailed of dismembering
this country and disuniting the state.
With which I cannot agree.
With which I cannot agree.
I am leaving my post...
with apprehension,
but also with hope,
with faith in you, your
wisdom and force of spirit.
I wish all the
best to all of you.
After reading the resignation speech,
I wanted to have tea from the cup
that had been
placed on the' table.
But the cup turned
out to be empty.
They had forgotten
to pour the tea in.
On 23 December 1991, Gorbachev
opened his private safety deposit box,
took a pack of secret papers
from it and gave it to Yeltsin.
Then Gorbachev drank
two shots of vodka
after which he said
he wasn't feeling well
and hid in the lounge room.
Yeltsin and Yakovlev went on
eating, drinking and communicating,
until Yeltsin left the office,
walking like a winner.
Yakovlev watched him taking firm steps
on the parquet floor of the empty corridor.
Mind that this place is mine.
Booked.
The mountain is high
And there's a forest
under the mountain
A green and thick forest
A real heaven
There's a river by the forest
Shining like a mirror
Towards the green valley
It's running away
On the coast, in a quiet place
The boats are tied
Three willows are bowing there
As if they were in grief
In grief for the beautiful summer to pass
With the blows of cold wind
Taking their leaves away
To be taken away by the stream
To you, dear river,
The spring will return
But youth will never return...
But youth will never return
and the whole world forever.
Mikhail Gorbachev said the famous words
"If not me, who? And if not now, when?"
He made a reform in his country
and simultaneously changed the world,
making it safer.
more peaceful, and a better place.
Glasnost and Perestroika -
he opened his government,
He let freedom into his country.
I don’t know what it is.
Sharon, take this off me.
She fastened it to me.
I think this is the border.
I want to cross it.
Freedom!
Dear friends!
There are not many people in my lifetime
about whom I can say full-heartedly,
here's the man who changed history forever.
Today let's celebrate
one of the most important people
of the 20th century.
my hero, my friend Mikhail Gorbachev.
GORBACHEV. PARADISE.
Do you know that
I almost kicked the bucket?
No. - No?
Seriously.
Guys, my health...
...has radically deteriorated
Most of all I suffer from...
...the change of weather.
Especially...
...the solar storms.
Magnetic storms are murderous.
You can name our conversation
"A dialog with a Weirdo".
Do you feel yourself a free person
- Yes, I do.
How does it manifest?
I can speak out.
I can express my opinion. I write a lot.
And I write about things
as openly as I see them.
But who hears your statements in Russia
Who has the opportunity
to hear you in Russia?
Everyone has. Whoever wants to.
But there are newspapers..
This is only recently
since we encountered...
when they refused to publish me.
They tell me - that's it,
the Gorbachev era has collapsed.
You remember?
And I say - who said that?
It's just beginning.
All nations should have
an opportunity,
freedom...
breadth..
Do you think freedom is something organic
for the Russian nation?
Or does democracy mean
violence against the Russians?
You know, one can find both
when answering this question.
Absolutely.
But there were always
those who moved things on.
Right, but they were
all either deported
or hanged or forced
to leave Russia.
Russia has always returned to non-freedom
as its natural form of existence.
Nevertheless, the answer to that
was given to you not by me
but by our genuine democrats.
(Pushkin's poem) "While freedom's
flame within us lives,"
'While we by honour's voice are guided,'
"To Russia, comrade, let us give"
"Our spirits whole and undivided."
Come on, focus on this.
"Deep in Siberia's mines..."
"Let's subdue our proud..."
No, no! "Subdue YOUR proud..."
You're reciting it wrong.
This is not about you.
"Subdue YOUR!"
"...spirit. Your
crushing toil..."
..and lofty thought...
Shall not be wasted.
uss/a shall from her
age-old sleep arise
"And despotism impatient crushing..."
- "Upon its ruins our names incise!"
The name "Gorbachev"
will be on that list, for sure.
Can I say something to the
ones present, off the record?
Sure. We're listening.
What you’re offering us is onanism.
That's not so bad, either.
- Isn't it?
Do you indulge in it?
- Haven't done it a long time.
But, if I understood you correctly,
you compared the search for freedom
in Russia with onanism -
that is, with receiving unnatural satisfaction.
And I am ready to agree with you.
Though it's very disappointing.
That's what onanism stands for.
Where's the democracy?
Why're you asking me?
That's right. It's not a question to you.
- Absolutely not.
Ii still view myself as a socialist.
Frankly, I still see Lenin as our god.
Socialism is a sturdy point of view.
And the more people...
will find new horizons in life,
get used to them,
the greater will be the need for socialism.
But some believe
that I have destroyed socialism.
You know,
I wrote my high school graduation essay
and got the highest mark.
I did not choose a literary topic
but I chose from the free topics,
which was as follows:
"Stalin is our military glory,
Stalin is our youth and mission. ”
This is my point of view.
I was a person...
with a quite good education
and a sense of responsibility.
And then I had to...
especially when I became
Secretary General...
and got acquainted with the materials...
that had emerged...
This is terrible!
All these lists of executions
carried out over tens of years.
Lists of a hundred, two hundred people...
These materials are so terrifying -
in both the human and the Party aspects
Stalin was not a socialist?
I think he was rather
an authoritarian person.
But now millions of
people support Stalin
Which ones of our
leaders were socialist
I was.
Who else?
It will be very interesting for you to say,
"When I asked Gorbachev, he said, ‘I was.'
When I asked, ‘Who else?’
he said, ‘No one.’
That was awesome!"
Yes...
Life matters the most.
That's it.
And then there's how we use it,
and how it uses us.
The day...
Is it the 12th of June, the Day of Russia?
Right? I think so.
Tents are set up in Red Square
and tables are laid for the feast.
Two groups are walking to meet each other -
Putin and me.
If we personify it.
"Hello."
- "Hello."
I say, "Long time, no see."
“You don’t say.”
I say, “No..."
"You're evading me."
- "Why so? Why?"
"Why? You set up
three meetings with me
and you did not arrive three times."
Don't cry.
Just imagine what I went through.
And he began with the fact
that life is complicated.
Life is life.
And off we went.
They went where they had to go,
and we went to the Kremlin Palace.
They went to the square,
to have their barbecue.
But we had already been there.
An incident that explains
that we had already parted our ways.
Are we parting?
Let's go?
- Let's go.
So long, guys.
Should I help you - Wait, Volodya...
No, you won’t lift me like this.
My arms can still lift me.
Right, you've been sitting deeply...
Look at this, damn!
- You’ve been sitting for a long time.
I'm getting more
work to do, not less..
But no strength.
Can you turn it a little bit?
That's it. That's it.
Shall we?
- You stand firm, Volodya.
Stand firm. And I'll stand even firmer.
That's it. Great.
- Right. Right.
Friends installed this elevator
for Gorbachev
when they learned that it took him
about an hour
to get to his own bedroom
on the second floor.
By the time Gorbachev resigned as
the head of the powerful Soviet empire,
all his property consisted of a
rather modest apartment in Moscow.
We'll leave on the left side.
Down the stairs...
You go down ahead.
- Yeah, yeah.
Stand there, on the threshold.
That's it, come on.
Vitaly!
-Yes, Mikhail Sergeevich.
Just a second. I'm running.
Vitaly, where have you been?
- I'm always here.
Round the clock with you.
When Gorbachev voluntarily resigned
from the post of the head of the USSR,
the Soviet republics
were given the opportunity
to become independent states.
The party leaders of these republics,
subordinate to Gorbachev,
immediately took advantage of this
and turned themselves
into rulers of new states.
Some still govern their countries
to the current day.
And some have already handed over power
to their children, by inheritance.
And in 1991,
during the collapse of the USSR,
these heads of the states
generously gave Gorbachev this house,
although for temporary use.
You're doing fine.
You're young. Look at your cheeks!
Thank you, Mikhail Sergeevich.
So nice to hear.
Well, we can invite guests, right?
Sure. We have the potatoes. Dumplings.
Dumplings should be boiled, right?
You'll tell me when, right?
There are some snacks.
You can sit and talk for awhile.
And you'll tell me
when the hot dish is to be served.
Although there's the potatoes.
Now listen...
Natasha, where should I put this?
Napkin? You lay it on your knees.
Potatoes...
- Count them. There's more of them.
More?
- You must count them.
Have they brought this?
- No, it's from your garden.
I went there this morning.
It's your favourite.
I'll bring the spoon for the aspic.
Do we have vodka?
- We do, Mikhail Sergeevich.
And beer?
Sure! How can you do without beer?
I'll go and check.
Natasha, can we sit down?
- Sure, you can.
This is to take before. And that's after.
- It's for me, right?
I'll put it there.
Tanya there wants to give you a treat.
He had some sausage.
He had the cheese.
But he's an old boy, skin and bones.
Welcome to my place.
This is my home.
Given by the state. But for life
It's not bad.
In our situation...
saying "for life" means much,
since they gave me...
Yeltsin gave me two
or three days to get lost.
What money do you live on?
Me and everyone around me, my relatives,
live and lived, as Volodya knows,
on the money I earned
going around lecturing.
There was a case when I returned home
with the royalties of 400,000 dollars.
But that was just one case.
All the rest were less.
Have you privatized this house?
No.
What about your neighbours?
- I don't know.
But we do.
- Did they privatize?
Heck with them.
- Right.
But this also tells something
about who the current ones are...
But my conscience is calm!
Raisa also hated things like that.
We were conscientious people.
Do your granddaughters come to Russia
to visit you? - Not anymore.
Do they still have their rooms here? No?
They have them over there.
We bought them.
We had saved some money
And when our granddaughters got married..
We spent it all,
giving half a million each for example.
Live.
There's a flat, live.
They are all together there.
Everything is pretty clear about them.
As to me, things are more complicated.
While Raisa was alive,
they all used to come around.
I still can’t calm down.
After Raisa Maximovna died,
you said a couple of times in public
that the meaning of life is gone.
It's gone.
- Is it?
It's gone.
What's the meaning of life then?
What's the meaning of life?
Can it be true that
the meaning of life
is to simply love one woman
and, I don’t know, have children with her?
Isn't the meaning of life
in something higher?
But what can be higher...
than the feeling of being in love
and being loved by a woman?
(Russian song)
"There're so many nice girls!"
"There're so many endearing names!"
"But only one of them bothers me,"
"Keeping away my calm and sleep"
I'm starting to forget...
I used to know many poems by heart.
I love poetry.
'"Dear mate, you will stay in my heart."
"It was destined, our separation"
"Still foretells new meeting
from the start."
That's Yesenin. A great poet.
(Ukrainian) The mountain is high...
And there's a forest under the mountain
A green and thick forest
A real heaven
There's a river by the forest
Shining like a mirror
Towards the green valley
It's running away
On the coast, in a quiet place,
The boats are tied
Three willows are bowing there
As if they were in grief
In grief for the beautiful summer to pass
With the blows of cold wind
Taking their leaves away
To be taken away, by the stream
To you, dear river...
some consolation...
The spring will return
But youth will never return
It will never come back again
I'm five years old.
I'm breathing my last.
Dying.
There is a candle
at the head of the bed.
Everyone's crying in Privolnoye.
My mother is crying.
It cannot be helped.
What could you do back in 1936?
Finally, some woman showed up
and advised them, “Find
some good fresh honey.
Give him a jar of good fresh honey."
They started looking,
found it and brought it to me.
Small teapots for tea leaves.
The honey was there.
Well, I remember everything.
And, left alone...
I turned and took that teapot,
and drank it all at once.
Three days later I was already running.
Rather than dying.
And surprisingly:
I took it..
and the lid fell off.
I can still remember the
ringing sound of the falling lid.
That's how all our
mechanisms work.
Well, I can go on with these stories.
We were already living in Stavropol,
at the highest point,
where the party committee was situated.
Winds were blowing from the steppe
the fragrance was simply intoxicating.
Incredible.
Raisa and I had a habit back then.
I drove her in a car
some fifty kilometres from the centre,
where wheat fields stretched...
endless!
There you could see the quail mating.
When the cornfields are in bloom,
as they're ripening,
the quails are running mad.
Love until death.
Oh God. You can live with it.
This is a story about how you
lived in heaven.
And now in hell.
Oh my...
Mikhail Sergeyevich, keep it.
Keep it for now.
I won’t keep it in my pocket.
Why do I need it?
No, Mikhail Sergeyevich, it goes with this.
Let it be for now.
- Well, I don't need it. Take it away.
They still have some more questions.
Why would I care?
We were never separated.
Always together.
Always hand in hand.
It's amazing how it can be this way.
They called me henpecked.
And I never refuted.
I'd rather supported it.
I wanted it to be that way.
It compliments and supports her.
When I began to live together with Raisa,
I made inquiries about her.
We believed that her mother was Russian.
And her father, Titarenko...
was a Ukrainian.
Like in my family.
But my mother is Ukrainian,
and my father is Russian.
Her grandfather was executed,
her mother’s father.
The whole family got scattered
across the country.
And...
I said to her, "You know what struck me?"
She asked, "What?"
“That you are not Russian but Ukrainian.”
“So what's the difference to you?”
she asks.
"Well, now I understand why
sometimes you are so mean..."
By the way, my grandfather, my mother’s
father, also stood trial.
And was sentenced to execution by shooting.
He was in charge of the collective farm
that he established.
And then the assistant regional prosecutor
summoned him.
"What is it?"
'As a matter of fact," he says,
this is no case for execution."
No crime has been committed whatsoever.
He was released
after 14 months of imprisonment.
He suffered from all kinds of torture.
His hands were broken with the door...
In my opinion,
it was because of his commitment to...
Trotskyism.
Why the fuck did he need this Trotskyism?
I remember his return.
Only the closest had gathered.
I was sitting on the oven-couch,
all ears.
And he says,
“I'm telling you so that you knew.
But no one needs to be told.
I'm also not telling."
“Stalin is not to blame,” he always said.
In the 10th form, I joined the Party.
They were so glad -
I asked them for advice.
They were so glad
that I joined the Communists.
Right, and...
They were also glad
that I was going to continue my studies.
I sent in my documents
but there was no response for two weeks.
I had sent a request
with a prepaid reply...
...as I realized.
The answer came,
“You are enrolled.
Student hostel granted. "
At the Law School...
of Moscow State University.
And when I left...
I was so happy about going to Moscow.
To Moscow!
And then I raised my head
and looked around.
To wave goodbye.
And I saw my grandfather, Pantelei,
the one who was sentenced to execution.
He was standing at the window of our cabin
and crying.
I can’t forget him to this day.
After this shooting,
Mikhail Gorbachev moved to the hospital,
to be under the supervision of doctors
around the clock.
Well, you could at least
write a couple of words -
who are you, and what is your purpose,
so that Mikhail Sergeevich understood...
But once in the hospital,
Mikhail Sergeevich
made a special appointment at his office
in the Gorbachev Foundation
to complete the shooting of our film.
After the Kremlin,
as an office for his foundation,
Gorbachev was given the premises of
one of the liquidated party institutions.
But soon the building was taken away.
Then Gorbachev decided to build
his own building to house the foundation,
and he did build it.
But today, to keep the foundation running
a significant part of the
premises must be leased out.
Hello, Mikhail Sergeyevich!
The Gorbachev Foundation is left with
only one wing in their own building.
But it was important for us to understand
how a person,
having climbed the party ladder
of the communist regime
from the very bottom to the very top,
raised to power
largely owing to personal efforts of
the head of the KGB of the USSR,
having gained power, in fact,
over the entire communist empire,
which controlled almost half of the world,
realized the need,
and then decided, essentially alone,
without supporters
among the then government members,
to begin the destruction
of the existing regime.
They're waiting for you!
- What's there to wait for? I'm ready
(Ukrainian) The Cossacks
drove home from the Don,
They deceived Galya,
they took her with them.
Oh, you, Galya, young Galya...
ow could one man take a radical decision
for the smashing blow,
bypassing the entire system
of the state apparatus.
starting a direct dialogue with the nation,
offering them democratization
and unexpected freedom?
How was he left without understanding
of the same nation,
betrayed and even cursed by so many
of the same nation?
We need to be able to make this film.
For some reason I believe...
that there should be such a picture,
and we must not spoil it.
Time shows that my strength is leaving me.
Seriously.
Does it mobilize or demobilize you?
Both.
Volodya, lend me your hand.
Good morning.
Director, come on!
Okay, let’s go on.
Now you are transferred to Moscow,
to the Central Committee,
to manage the agricultural affairs.
So, what's next?
As soon as they elected me,
security immediately appeared around.
They accommodated me,
gave me a hotel room.
Assigned the car and security detail.
I'm sitting at night in
that office and thinking:
What am I mixed up in? And why?
was the Tsar and God there, in Stavropol.
In the South.
Life was good.
A phone rang.
It's Andropov.
"Where are you now?"
I say, "Well, they assigned me here."
“Well, what are you doing?”
“Nothing. Sitting and thinking
what am I mixed up in?"
We were close to him since we..
...worked together in Stavropol.
“Can you come to me now?”
"All right".
And I went to the square, to the KGB.
To his office.
Arrived...
"How're you doing?"
" I got everything I need;
now I have to work," I say.
They promised
to bring my family here later.
Everything is solved. Thank you,
Yuri Vladimirovich, for your support,
even though you criticize
"When have I criticized you?"
“In my opinion, every time.
You don’t even notice. ”
Yeah...
“I see,” he says, “that everyone
wants to quickly wheedle you."
[Prime Minister] Kosygin is whispering
something to you, giving a smile. ”
I think, "Well, that's a
Chekist on a mission."
Right.
He says, “Misha, I want
to make it clear to you.
Brezhnev is the main issue.
He himself several times
has raised a question
about his retirement.
We have an agreement,
and we have made a decision
to use him wisely
It would be important to have
a centre figure, able to unite. ”
“Yuri Vladimirovich,” I say,
“I have no complaints whatsoever
against Leonid Ilyich [Brezhnev].”
“Well, that's all for now. "
So, I joined them,
as a matter of fact.
And then all hell broke loose...
Once, during a
vacation with our families,
Andropov's and mine,
while the ladies
had gone for a walk,
we also took a stroll together.
And I said, “Yuri Vladimirovich,
since we know each other well,
and get along all right,
I wanted to ask you a question.
In my opinion, no one thinks
about the future of the country.
The Politburo, in my
opinion, does not."
“What else are we thinking
of?!” he immediately reacted.
I say, “Yuri Vladimirovich,
we decided to speak our mind.
Take our visits to the Mausoleum
before the November parade.
We always have our pictures
taken before we start for the parade.
Here is the last picture,
look at it carefully.
Can you see at least
one young face there? ”
"So what?
Are old people no longer good enough?"
- “This is not the point,” I say.
"We are a country of forests, right?
There is no forest without undergrowth.”
He remembered it until his
dying day. Well, undergrowth!
When I was elected the
Secretary of the Central Committee,
and I went to pay tribute,
Leonid Ilyich [Brezhnev]
reacted to this election as follows...
I approached him, "Leonid Ilyich,
thank you for your trust,
I will do my best."
He did not even look back at me
and did not reach out his hand, nothing.
"Yeah,” he said, “Kulakov
was a good man.
I was appointed, and he had
proposed me as a candidate.
And now? "Oh, my
goodness," I thought.
"What am I mixed up in?"
The situation on the eve of
Perestroika was the way...
it seemed, we would
never get out of this swamp.
It seemed that everything will
go to hell and we'll be in deep shit,
to put it in simple words.
As soon as the opportunity arose
and Glasnost was proclaimed...
it was no less than...
by comparison, like clean air.
People need freedom.
Without it a person won't develop and
won't understand what's happening at all.
People should know
what's happening -
in the country, with power,
what's happening abroad,
how other people live.
Glasnost!
And our business is to
develop it and to cultivate it.
Our interest is in the
ones who live today.
And who eat bread from
the fields of Perestroika.
I remembered
my routine as a
Secretary General.
Won't you have it?
- No.
Will you have a
cheese pie with tea?
What kind of pie?
- The usual, cheese pie.
Raise your hands,
who wants to have tea.
I'll have coffee,
I'll bring it over.
Did Europe take the
chance provided by you?
I think it did.
What about Russia?
Russia, too.
What do you mean?
- What do I mean?
How did Russia take the chance?
We live in peace.
In peace we live.
We live in a
dictatorship, actually.
Well, you know..
what we have to do,
go through and get over.
It takes time - years and years,
enormous effort and skills.
It's not that easy.
Why is it "so easy" in Eastern Europe?
The Czech Republic, for example?
They've been living in a
democratic society for thirty years.
But we're still looking
back in the past.
What about you? You're
writing and making films -
and think that you've been
deprived of democracy?
I think I've been
deprived of democracy.
I think there was democracy under Gorbachev
and that's it.
Ok, during the first
years of Yeltsin.
Even during the last years of Yeltsin,
when he gave power to Putin,
there was no longer democracy.
All in all, we have something to discuss.
And you have enough topics for your film.
You'll make your money. Bless you.
I did not understand your answer.
I did not understand
the answer. You mean...
Even the attitude towards you...
If you're a hero in Europe...
You're a hero in
Europe, no doubt.
No doubt. you're a
hero for European states.
For Russia... I wouldn't say so.
Say it. Who's stopping you?
I want to hear from you.
- No.
You don't say it, because you do not want to.
In Russia, you are not a hero.
I cannot agree with this.
What about your 0.8 percent rating?
Right... all that...
History is a lady of whims.
It's true.
I believe that you will
eventually be a hero in Russia.
I am convinced of this.
But, I'm afraid that it won't
happen either today or tomorrow.
Do not be afraid! Because I
tell you -it takes much time.
And a lot of
patience. And skills.
That is, becoming smarter.
This is a huge process...
that can only be
compared with eternity.
Hello.
- Hello.
Hello again.
Is life going on?
- Sure, it's going on.
Is everybody getting it?
- They do. The interviewers.
But he's standing.
When we're all sitting.
Is it hot?
- Yeah. It's hot, it's hot...
Burns.
Who's there in
the mirror? Putin?
Gazing. Saying something,
nodding his head.
Volodya!
I have never been left frustrated
by an open direct conversation
with the highest ...
The first president we contacted
was the most inveterate person.
When we met with Reagan,
on the first day...
It was in Switzerland.
I arrived by air, and he met me.
And we talked for the
first time, one-to-one.
Apart from the delegations.
We had a talk, we
had a great talk.
The beginning was
not promising at all.
I went out and our people asked me,
"Mikhail Sergeyevich, how did it go?"
“Did you succeed
with this falcon?”
say, "He's a real..."
These early animals...?
Vultures ?
Dinosaurs?
- Right.
“A real dinosaur,” I said.
Well, he did not
leave it unanswered.
They told him what
I said. And he...
A couple of days later
there was a coverage on this,
and they asked him what was
his impression about Gorbachev.
“A stubborn Bolshevik,” he said.
Was he right? Of course not!
Then everything
developed with obstacles.
For example, when I
arrived on a visit to America,
where we slowly
began to sign papers...
And we agreed eventually
that nuclear war
is unacceptable,
and there can
be no winner in it!
If he starts it, we respond.
we start it, he responds.
And it's enough to blow up
the whole motherf***king world!
Motherf***king world...
They say,
the fact that the
USSR ceased to exist,
many countries of the world
in Europe and America -
is seen as your achievement.
And how do you think? You
want to deprive me of the merit?
No, I don't. I want to
understand your point of view...
I told you...
what I told you.
Why don't you
want to talk about it?
About what?
- About the collapse of the USSR.
Why?
- Well, you're not talking about it.
That I made it collapse?
- No. You're not talking about it at all.
You're not talking about the
role of perestroika, glasnost,
and democratization in
the collapse of the USSR.
First of all,
I cannot agree with a
formulation that the Soviet Union...
our state..
became a victim of democracy.
No.
I fought a serious battle,
fought to the end, as they say,
so that...
for the sake of preservation
of the Soviet Union,
that was my position.
Read any of my earlier speeches.
How can I give up on myself?
Ok, now another question.
Latvians, Estonians and
Lithuanians love you for...
thanks to you, they got freedom.
I do not want to deprive
them of their right to love.
Listen, Mikhail Sergeyevich,
your answers are really cunning.
I have answered
you very honestly.
No.
- Honestly.
But these are mutually
exclusive things.
Either you are for
preserving the USSR,
or you give the right to the Latvians
to love you because you ruined it.
But these are mutually
exclusive things.
That's what you'll
write. So write it.
But I'll stick to my words.
But that's not fair. How
is it not fair? Motherf***...
I'm already using
filthy language.
Right, but you can either be for
the Baltic States gaining freedom,
or for preserving the USSR.
No.
- Then explain it.
Like I said.
- What did you say?
Someone said I
had to shoot them.
Well, if you give the order to fire
in one case, and yet in another.
No, that's not right.
I think I did the right thing.
But they fired in Vilnius.
Did the Soviet Army fire or not?
Confusing business.
They are trying to
make me responsible.
So that they could
bring me to trial.
Are you afraid of trial?
What? - You're a brave man,
you're not afraid of anything.
Would you like to
be dragged to court?
I won’t let anybody
make something up
and then make me
responsible for their fiction.
Let someone's
plan come true. No.
Look...
What's happening?
- What is it?
I don't know.
Is there any mistake
that you would not repeat?
I was self-confident.
Excessive confidence
grew into self-confidence.
Everyone says: mistakes.
Gorbachev’s mistakes.
Have some mercy!
There's no one so
talented and capable
hat they could compete
with the Almighty.
Or His authorized
representatives.
No. It happens to everyone.
You succeed in many things
and you fail in many things.
At times they say,
“Go at full throttle!”
And at times they
say, "Go to bed."
What about the Court of God?
"But there is Court of
God, you, evil manifold!"
"The terrible court... it waits"
Let's go on?
What about the Putsch
- What?
The coup d'etat.
How did you fail to notice the coup
lotted by your associates under your nose?
It means I'm weak.
I didn’t chop off anyone's head.
But I don't regret that I did not use
the methods of my predecessors.
Even Lenin's.
If this or that situation,
that we cannot define now,
makes us lose our mind...
then what can we even talk about?
Then it's better...
to have a drink.
And then there is Yeltsin's truth,
who can drink half a bucket of booze.
And go and relieve himself...
behind the wheel of a plane.
But during the
hard-liners’ coup,
It was Yeltsin who saved you.
Do I understand it correctly?
Yeltsin helped.
And interfered much.
My point of view. And
my responsible position.
They told me afterwards,
"Why didn’t you send him away?"
Besides, until that time,
I had all rights,
reasons, and motives.
And, certainly, I had power.
But it’s not my cup of tea.
I would be in a
conflict with myself.
It struck everyone,
my closest ones.
That I'm... forgiving.
This would probably suit...
...a tsar
not the Secretary of
the Central Committ
When Boris Yeltsin
came to power,
he ordered Gorbachev
to leave in three days.
But on the next day...
...although we had
agreed on a due date...
he arrived early in the
morning with his heroes
and drank a bottle of...
...whiskey...
When I called, they told me,
"They're already partying in your office."
This suggests one's
impertinent nature.
Fool.
Madcap.
The Constitution of 1993..
was in his face and likeness.
Because it is an
autocratic constitution.
Right-
So you did not use the
army to maintain your power?
No, I fought to the end,
did whatever I could do.
But too many things
were happening at once.
The hard-liners, of
course, played a role.
It weakened my position.
And supported these scoundrels.
You must know that Gorbachev
and Yeltsin are put on a par
both as democrats and liberators,
also traitors and destroyers of the USSR.
What do you think of it?
No. It is a big difference.
Yeltsin and Gorbachev
-this is a big difference.
Ultimately, are you or Yeltsin to
blame for the collapse of the Union?
I would
there is no direct liability.
Though I could prevent this,
and it had to be done.
He just had to be
sent away from here.
He had demonstrated that
he oscillates, that he is torn.
That is, Yeltsin made
the Soviet Union collapse?
I said what I said.
But you didn’t say anything!
- That's good.
Mikhail Sergeyevich,
believe me, this is not...
Listen. Vitaly...
- Yes.
Case closed.
Around one o'clock tomorrow?
Approximately...
- Around one.
Mikhail Sergeevich,
this is our director, Alvis.
You've seen his
"Shukshin's Stories".
There'll be a new
play about you.
Have you already
written the play?
No. That's why we came to you.
You have to come
when it's ready.
No, there are some ideas I
wanted to discuss with you.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I'm from
Riga. You understood that, right?
We've planned to make a play
about you and about Raisa Maximovna.
There will be only two actors. It
will be about love and freedom.
You said your mother
loved to sing a song..
(Ukranian) "The mountain is high
And there's a forest under the mountain"
But I didn't find the
melody of this song.
First, the lyrics.
"The mountain is high And
there's a forest under the mountain
"A green and thick
forest, a real heaven"
She was Ukrainian.
- Yes. Can you translate it into Russian?
No! - To be able to understand the meaning
You don't have to do it.
- You can understand it.
So that I could understand.
We'll translate it for you.
A green and thick
forest, a real heaven...
What is there that
you don't understand?
'To you, dear river,
the spring will return..."
"But youth will never return, it
will never come back again..."
Did Raisa Maximovna sing well?
She could sing along.
But she knew less...
Songs? - Ten times less.
- What did you sing?
A couple of them...
...were my favourite.
I was singing
while I was shaving.
What exactly? Tell us.
Just a sec.
Misty morning, grey morning...
Sorrowful cornfields,
covered with snow
Willing or not, you'll
remember the past
Remember the
faces long forgotten
Remember the
faces long forgotten...
Beautiful. Beautiful.
Raisa did not close the door and
listened to this concert almost every day.
I'm shaving and singing.
She sang along,
right? Wasn't ashamed?
Yes, but she was
not a match to Mother.
Are there any of
your letters left?
We did have letters,
but she burnt them.
All of them? She burnt them all?
At least I haven't found any.
Maybe, when we check the archives...
...when they will check, not
me... they may find some more.
You said that
Perestroika killed Raisa.
I've read it somewhere. The
excitement, apparently, she experienced...
Me too.
- You too?
Who kissed who first? Did she
kiss you first? Or you kissed her?
I see. On the street
or in the room?
In Sokolniki Pond.
Pond? Did you go swimming?
Cool.
I wanted to drown her. And
then I decided to kiss her.
And what did you quarrel about?
If you had any quarrels?
What were they about?
I'm not a sweet person
and she wasn't either.
That's why I'm asking,
what did you quarrel about?
Once I said to her,
“For God's sake,
don’t piss me off.”
I’d only have to raise my hand once
-and it would no longer be needed. "
She reacted to this the way that I
thought, “Well, you're a stupid bear”
How did she react?
- No, I said that to myself.
I know. But what about
her? How did she react?
She reacted so that...
she burst into tears,
"Are you going to beat me?"
My first idea
was... I thought...
after my Dad and Mum
you're the third person wh®
influenced my fate so much.
Who changed my fate.
And there are hundreds of millions like me.
You know, Mikhail Sergeevich...
Alvis and us, we are interested -the
man who just changed the world...
There was Lenin, right.
Lenin changed his age.
He changed it like...
Changed, only with a negative value.
But Lenin was not alone.
There was a bunch of them.
But he was the brains.
- In this case, one man changed.
The question is, what
kind of person are you?
hat's why Alvis is reading heaps of books
Where do you come
from? Your Mum, the song...
How does it actually happen?
You have changed the course of
history, ehanged the whole planet...
Well, perhaps we
can finish with this.
o I'm taking the
cabbage and the apples?
Yes, yes, do it...
Mikhail Sergeyevich,
let’s take it off.
What is it? Quiet!
It’s name?
- Fabio.
An Italian. Translation?
An Italian.
- Charming.
Fabka.
Fabioso.
Some bread.
Tanya, do not forget the aspic.
Have some salad,
Mikhail Sergeyevich.
Your assistant makes it himself.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I made it.
- Should be tasty.
Yes. Sure, it should.
From start to finish.
Well, I am now . Yes?
No way.
-Why?
You can’t entice me... eating.
Aren't you hungry?...
Check. Check. Check.
Is there any beer? Pour it in!
How much is it? Five
roubles? Pour it out!
How much is it? Five roubles? Pour it out!
Oh, Mikhail
Sergeyevich, I'm so glad.
I think this is the first time
we're meeting like this, right?
Have you been here before?
- We also have not.
Can you imagine what
New Year is like for u
Have you been living
here for a long time?
35 years. - In here.
That's why we have to raise a glass...
For that. It's the most important thing.
I've lived for twenty
years without a wife
and I feel that it is no good.
So let Tanya say a toast.
We are at her house. Say it.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I can’t
imagine how I'd live without men.
I can’t imagine. He’s my rock.
I knew who I was giving the toast to.
- The Bastion of everything.
Right. In general, be healthy.
Here's to this union!
Peace and friendship.
I am very glad to see you.
- Guys!
Nothing doing, old
age takes its toll.
Time flies.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, I just saw it...
- Our time flies.
Your pill...
We don't want to forget it.
There's a heap of them.
Would you like some water?
I'll bring it.
- Sit down. There's no need.
Here they are,
Mikhail Sergeevich.
Mikhail Sergeyevich, which New
Year do you remember especially well?
Since your childhood?
Oh, there's so many...
Come on, buddy. Good boy.
Good boy. A miracle...
Nice little nose...
Say something on New Year's Eve.
What you are hoping
for. And what your are not.
We've become quiet.
Quiet because
we're lost in thought.
What will happen this year.
What are our thoughts
and calculations for this year.
Great, indeed.
And time is flowing, not dripping.
I don’t sleep much
at night. I think.
I think a lot.
If it’s not a secret,
tell us about what.
Hands up!
Why are they pestering me, eh?
Shall we probably
bark at them? Or not?
We'll still need them.
Such a good boy.
Will you get it?
Hallo?
This is not Volodya.
This is me.
Yeah,things happen.
It's t he New Year.
It is a pity that you are
not there, in this small...
company of friends.
I wish you a happy New Year
from the bottom of my heart,
as a brother.
I'm in the hospital for now.
I cannot really say I'm better.
But there is some progress.
I often think about you.
Where shall I invite you
when we take power again?
All right, I won’t take power.
Bye.
We strive to do something
important and useful for other people
And to help those who
require our support,
to make them happy by giving
them presents and our attention.
Such sincere impulses, pure
thoughts and selfless generosity
are the true magic of the New Year holiday.
It brings out the
best in people.
We’re living with wonderful
impressions since childhood.
They come back every New Year,
when we hug our loved
ones, our parents,
prepare surprises for our
children and grandchildren,
decorate the New Year tree with them
and unpack once again paper cut-outs,
baubles and glass garlands.
These, sometimes ancient,
but beloved family trinkets
give their warmth to
the younger generations.
Of course, each family has
its own New Year traditions,
but everyone is united by an
atmosphere of kindness and care.
May the happiness of mutual
understandin be in your home forever,
Happy holidays and a
Happy New Year 202
Precisely calculated.
Hello, New Year!
Hooray!
Russia - our holy nation...
Russia - our beloved country.
A mighty will, great glory
These are yours for all time!
Be glorious!
our free Fatherland!
Free Fatherland.
And who brought freedom?
Dear compatriots.
fellow citizens,
as a result of the
newly formed situation,
creation of he Commonwealth
of Independent States,
I cease my activities
in the post of the
USSR President.
I am making this decision out of
considerations based on principle.
I have firmly stood for
independence, self-rule of nations,
for the sovereignty
of the republics.
but at the same time for
preservation of the union state,
the unity of the country
Events went a different way.
The policy prevailed of dismembering
this country and disuniting the state.
With which I cannot agree.
With which I cannot agree.
I am leaving my post...
with apprehension,
but also with hope,
with faith in you, your
wisdom and force of spirit.
I wish all the
best to all of you.
After reading the resignation speech,
I wanted to have tea from the cup
that had been
placed on the' table.
But the cup turned
out to be empty.
They had forgotten
to pour the tea in.
On 23 December 1991, Gorbachev
opened his private safety deposit box,
took a pack of secret papers
from it and gave it to Yeltsin.
Then Gorbachev drank
two shots of vodka
after which he said
he wasn't feeling well
and hid in the lounge room.
Yeltsin and Yakovlev went on
eating, drinking and communicating,
until Yeltsin left the office,
walking like a winner.
Yakovlev watched him taking firm steps
on the parquet floor of the empty corridor.
Mind that this place is mine.
Booked.
The mountain is high
And there's a forest
under the mountain
A green and thick forest
A real heaven
There's a river by the forest
Shining like a mirror
Towards the green valley
It's running away
On the coast, in a quiet place
The boats are tied
Three willows are bowing there
As if they were in grief
In grief for the beautiful summer to pass
With the blows of cold wind
Taking their leaves away
To be taken away by the stream
To you, dear river,
The spring will return
But youth will never return...
But youth will never return