ALL A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

[Yevgraf meets Yuri and his family. Whilst Yevgraf appears on the screen, we never hear his on-screen words but his voice-over instead.]
Yevgraf: "I told them who I was. The old man was hostile, the girl, cautious. My brother.. seemed very pleased. I think the girl was the only one who guessed at their position."
Yuri: You're just as I imagined you. You're my political conscience.
Yevgraf: "I asked him - hadn't he one of his own? [laughs] And so he talked about the revolution."
Yuri: You lay life on a table and you cut out all the tumours of injustice. Marvellous.
Yevgraf: "I told him if he felt like that he should join the party."
Yuri: Ah, but cutting out the tumours of injustice - that's a deep operation. Someone must keep life alive while you do it. By living. Isn't that right?
Yevgraf: "I thought then it was wrong. He told me what he thought about the party and I trembled for him. He approved of us, but for reasons which were subtle, like his verse. Approval such as his could vanish overnight. I told him so."
Yuri: Well, of course I can't approve this evening something you may do tomorrow.
Yevgraf: "He was walking about with a noose round his neck and didn't know. So I told him what I'd heard about his poems."
Yuri: Not.. liked? Not liked by whom? Why not liked?
Yevgraf: "So I told him that."
Yuri: Do you think it's "personal, petit-bourgeoise and self-indulgent"?
[On the screen, Yevgraf nods and says "yes".]
Yevgraf: "I lied. But he believed me, and it struck me through to see that my opinion mattered. The girl knew what it meant, what it was going to mean. They couldn't survive what was coming in the city. I urged them to leave and live obscurely somewhere in the country where they could keep themselves alive."
Tonya: We have - used to have - an estate at Varykino, near Yuriatin. People know us there.
Yevgraf: "He didn't resist. I offered to obtain permits, passes, warrants; I told them what to take, and what to leave behind. I had the impertinence to ask him for a volume of his poems. And so we parted. I think I even told him that we would meet again in better times... but perhaps I didn't."


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