Original subtitles

Central Film Studio of Children's and Youth Films

named after M. GORKY

By commission of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR

on Television and Radio Broadcasting

SEVENTEEN MOMENTS OF SPRING

Part 2

Starring

Stierlitz - Vyacheslav TIKHONOV

Stalin - Andro KOBALADZE

Chief of Soviet Intelligence - Pyotr CHERNOV

Pastor Schlag - Rostislav PLYATT

Müller - Leonid BRONEVOY

Kaltenbrunner - Mikhail ZHARKOVSKY

Klaus - Lev DUROV

Frau Saurich - Emiliya MILTON

Gabi Nabel - Svetlana SVETLICHNAYA

Guard at Stierlitz's cottage - Alexei DOBRONRAVOV

"One-Eyed" - Rudolf PANKOV

Narrated by Efim KOPELYAN

After receiving orders from Central Command today,

Stierlitz had no way of knowing that six days earlier

Stalin, reviewing the latest agent reports late at night,

had called in the Intelligence Chief and said...

Any sign of fascist attempts to negotiate

with the most aggressive

Western imperialist powers

must be treated

as top priority.

Understood, Comrade Stalin.

Of course, you understand that...

the key players in such potential separate talks

would almost certainly be Hitler's closest allies,

trusted

both the party apparatus

and by the people they've deceived.

These associates of his

must be the focus of your close surveillance.

No doubt that these closest allies of the tyrant,

facing imminent collapse,

will betray him to save their own skin.

Stierlitz had no way of knowing this.

But as an experienced agent, he knew well

that such directives from Central Command were based on serious intelligence,

and that the mission he was given

was likely assigned to several agents,

not just him alone.

He also understood

that no separate negotiations starting now

could change the course of the war,

or the new order it was creating.

Strength, courage,

and victory

were on his country's side.

But the mission had to be carried out,

and Stierlitz understood its complexity fully.

At that moment, he wasn't sure how to tackle it.

He only knew that to carry out that mission,

he had to reach the very top of the Reich,

to Göring,

to Goebbels,

to Bormann and Himmler.

If such negotiations were to start,

they would come from one of them.

But who?

Let's get down to a final analysis

of all the intel he's gathered over the years,

weighing all the pros and cons.

He had no room for error in his analysis.

Who among the four?

Göring?

Goebbels?

Bormann?

Himmler?

Who?

15 Feb 1945 8:12 a.m.

Hello.

You look just right.

How long has it been since you ate?

Three days. Work is work.

Now listen carefully.

What should you focus your attention on?

On the pastor's role in the pacifist movement.

Where in Switzerland he went and why.

There's a traitor living there - Krause, a former minister.

But what really interests me is how he'll react to you as a Communist.

That's what matters most to me.

Standartenführer, the prisoner column is arriving.

There have been changes. The pastor's not home - he's at the church.

What is he doing there? He's banned from performing services.

-He plays the organ. -The organ?

-He's playing the organ? -He's playing the organ!

-Is there a cellar there? -I think so.

Klaus, do you know where the church is?

-Got it. -Let's go - it's time.

Help me.

To the cellar, to the cellar...

To the cellar, to the cellar.

To Berlin.

And hurry.

Your lifeline is long, easy to follow,

and promises full prosperity.

-Yes... -Well?

Full prosperity.

We can hope that everything will be better and brighter in days to come.

Good evening.

Would you like a beer?

No, thank you.

Please bring me some cognac and matches.

Good evening, Mr. Bolzen.

Good evening, Frau Saurich. Will you join me?

Thank you.

I have an idea, Mr. Bolzen.

Alright.

If someone asks for me, tell them I went to play chess.

Gabi, if someone calls, I'm playing chess.

Mr. Bolzen, I think I'm going to win today.

Last time you thought that too.

Last time I was obviously not at my best.

Even Gabi said so.

Where is she? I haven't seen her in a while.

Oh, she's here!

She's quietly sitting in her corner, like usual,

typing those wonderful articles of hers.

It's so cold in this house.

This is my lorgnette.

I think it's always cold here now, winter and summer alike.

These are my beads, they're very old.

They belonged to my mother, yes.

The room Frau Nabel occupies is especially cold.

It's a corner room.

It used to be my elder son's room.

Frau Nabel, the boss wants the menu to be retyped.

Alright, Paul, I'll do it.

The boss wants it right away.

All right, I'll do it right away.

Did Frau Nabel know your son?

No, not at all.

Gabi never met him.

I made my move.

I came to know her...

well, when...

Her house was bombed.

Paul!

-Yes, sir? -More beer.

Yes.

Right away.

What is this?

Checkmate?

No, that's no good. You didn't make that move, and I didn't make mine.

Put it back. Mine is here, yours is there. That wasn't a good move.

I'll play the Caro-Kann defense. Just don't interfere.

-What will you play? -The Caro-Kann defense.

Well, go ahead.

Well, it's quite possible.

Oh, so you move here...

Well, well, well... No way.

Information for consideration: GÖRING

Veteran of the Hitler Party, Reichsmarshal, the Führer's designated successor.

Married twice, father of two children.

Completed secondary education.

"Kill, kill, kill.

"Don't think about the consequences.

Remember: I'll answer for all of you."

Hermann Göring.

In 1942, the Soviet Air Force

shattered the myth of the German Air Force's invincibility.

And when the Allies' 800 airplanes

broke through the Luftwaffe's defenses

and destroyed Kiel,

Hitler publicly yelled at Göring:

"Not a single enemy bomb will ever fall on the Reich!

"Who said that to the people?

"Who reassured the Party?

"A leader's credibility

"is measured by promises kept, Göring.

And you have deceived the nation."

Göring was once a heroic WWI pilot.

After the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, he fled to Italy,

only returning to Berlin after amnesty.

Hitler nominated Göring to the Reichstag.

He had to earn the people's trust.

But he was more comfortable with the fascists

and the industrialists backing the Nazis.

After the Nazi victory,

Göring became Reichsmarshal of the Air Force,

Reich President of the Reichstag,

Reich President of Prussia,

Reich Minister of the Air Force,

responsible for the Four-Year Plan,

and Chief Forest Warden of Germany.

By 1935,

lower-level party members said:

"Göring is no longer the man we knew.

"He no longer welcomes comrades casually.

"He makes them wait in line in his office

"just to get an appointment.

"He's living in luxury.

He's stopped mixing with the people."

At first it was whispered.

But when Göring built a castle, Carinhall,

where he hosted endless hunting parties,

Ley, the Labor Front leader, complained to Hitler.

"Göring's lifestyle," he said, "is corrupting the nation."

Goebbels added: "Luxury is consuming him, mein Führer.

We must help our Hermann."

So Hitler went to Carinhall.

"Leave him alone," he said after talking with Göring.

"Only Hermann knows how to present himself to Western diplomats.

"Let us consider this castle the people's property.

Let's just think Göring lives there."

It was near Carinhall that a concentration camp was built,

where, under Göring's sanction, experiments

were conducted on sick old people and children.

"That's what the nation wants," Göring said after visiting that death camp.

It was from Carinhall that Göring gave the order

to destroy Guernica.

It was from Carinhall that he ordered the bombing of Barcelona,

Warsaw, Moscow,

Coventry,

Belgrade,

Cracow, Leningrad.

It was where he returned after Hitler

for the first time subjected him to humiliating criticism in 1942,

after the Allies' air raids.

Since then he began to shun political activity,

moved away from his old friends, making rare appearances at receptions.

Though for everybody in the Reich

he remained the Führer's successor,

his closest comrade-in-arms, Nazi Number Two.

Himmler once said to Schellenberg:

"That's it. Göring is finished.

Hitler will never forgive him for bombing Germany."

And so, Stierlitz eliminated Göring

because the Reichsmarshal had lost the real power

he once had,

and secondly, because under Hitler's sanction

he had been under the constant observation

of Himmler's secret service.

"No," thought Stierlitz,

"in my war I shouldn't stake on Göring.

He's a colossus with feet of clay."

Who? Who?

Yes? I understand.

Who else was sharing your defeatist attitudes?

Which of your co-workers, subordinates, assistants?

Who?!

You're going to tell me, swine.

Go on with the interrogation.

15 Feb 1945 6:38 p.m.

TOP SECRET

Personnel File Müller, Heinrich

SS-Gruppenführer, Chief of Department IV, Reich Security Office

(Secret State Police - Gestapo).

Character Report: Member of the Nazi Party since 1939,

Müller Heinrich, SS-Gruppenführer,

Chief of IV Department, Reich Security Office.

A true Aryan.

Character: Nordic, self-possessed.

Sociable and even-tempered with friends and colleagues.

Relentless toward the Reich's enemies.

Exemplary family man. No improper associations reported.

Proven an outstanding organizer.

I don't want to stir up in you a harmful suspicion

against your Party comrades-in-arms.

But the facts are as follows.

First.

Stierlitz, albeit indirectly,

bears partial responsibility

for the Cracow operation's failure.

He was there when the city,

by some strange coincidence, remained intact,

although it was meant to be destroyed.

Second.

He was involved in the missing V-2 rocket case.

The rocket disappeared.

I pray to God it has sunk

in the marshes between the Vistula and the Wkra.

Third.

He still oversees several matters

related to the retaliation weapon.

And although visible failures have yet to appear...

there are no breakthroughs,

victories, or tangible successes.

I would be glad, Müller,

if you could, before the files arrived here,

disprove my suspicions.

I like Stierlitz.

And I'd like you to provide

documented proof

against my sudden doubts.

I have never received any reports on him.

Yet no one is immune to mistakes

and failures in our work.

So you think I'm wrong?

No, not at all.

Certainly, we need to analyze

the suspicions from all sides.

Otherwise, why maintain our apparatus at all?

We all might be called then

loafers evading the frontline.

Are there more facts?

What can I tell you...

I don't even know where to start.

I've asked to tape-record

his conversations with our people for a few days.

Those I absolutely trust openly talk among themselves

about our tragic situation,

about our military's stupidity,

the incompetence of Ribbentrop,

about that idiot Göring,

about the nightmare awaiting every one of us

if the Russians break into Berlin.

And Stierlitz just says: "Nonsense,

everything's fine, everything's going the right way."

Love for the Fatherland and the Führer

doesn't mean blind faith in your colleagues.

I asked myself: Maybe he's an idiot?

We have so many dimwits who mindlessly

parrot Goebbels' nonsense.

No, he's not an idiot.

Then why isn't he honest?

Either he trusts no one

or he's afraid of something,

or he's scheming something

and wants to be crystal clear.

But if so, what could he be scheming?

All his operations must be connected abroad, with the neutrals.

I asked myself: Will he return from there?

And if he returns, wouldn't he contact the neutrals,

the opposition, and other scoundrels?

I couldn't find a definite answer,

neither yes nor no.

Yes...

Do you want to look at his file first,

or can I take it now?

You take it. I have to go to the Führer now.

Have you been drinking?

No, not a drop.

Then why are your eyes bloodshot?

I didn't sleep.

Too much work on Prague.

Our men are tailing the underground there.

Things will get very interesting in the next few weeks.

Krüger will give you assistance.

He's an excellent worker, though lacks imagination.

Have some cognac.

-It'll perk you up. -I wish it did.

On the contrary, cognac makes me dizzy. I prefer vodka.

This one won't make you dizzy. Cheers!

This villa is a safe house.

At one point, the villa was purchased through front men

and a Bolzen,

chief engineer at the people's chemical plant,

named after Robert Ley,

was given the right to use it.

He hired a guard, paying him a high salary and good rations.

That Bolzen was an SS-Standartenführer.

Today he came here to meet with

his agent provocateur, Klaus.

Information for consideration:

GOEBBELS

Veteran of Hitler's Party, Reich Minister of Propaganda,

SS-Obergruppenführer, the Gauleiter of Berlin,

the architect of the Third Reich's new moral code.

Married, has six children.

Completed secondary education.

"You should be cruel and relentess toward those

"we're fighting

"and who are doomed by us to total annihilation.

"No pity should ever stir in your hearts

"for a Slav, a Jew, or a Frenchman.

Remember: you are the future masters of the world."

Goebbels.

Leader of the Berlin Nazi Party,

Chief of Press, Propaganda, and Culture, Joseph Goebbels

was known across the Reich as an orator and political strategist,

and as the instigator of the exile from Germany of Thomas Mann,

Albert Einstein, Bertold Brecht, and Anna Seghers.

On his orders, prominent publicist von Ossietzky was killed.

With his approval, the best German journalists, communists,

and Social Democrats were executed.

"The Possessed Nazi" - that was Goebbels' Party nickname.

Though Reichsführer Himmler's officials called the Reich Minister

by a different name in their secret reports.

He was referred to by the nickname

"The Babelsberg Bull."

Gestapo agents never caught the Reich Minister

in the boudoirs of actresses during night orgies in Babelsberg.

But scandal broke out when it was revealed

that Goebbels had an affair with Czech actress Lida Baarova.

Goebbels was summoned to the Party office

and for four hours was subjected to humiliating questioning

about his affair with an inferior Slav woman.

Shortly after these events, which nearly cost Goebbels

his career,

Stierlitz saw the Reich Minister at a book fair.

He remembered Goebbels' hands,

he remembered how carefully

Goebbels held a book of selected speeches carefully.

The same night, on Goebbels' orders, books had been burned,

books of Marx, Engels, Hegel, Kant,

Heine, Mann, Tolstoy,

Rolland, Gorky, Brecht, Seghers, and many others.

The Reich Minister continued to atone for his sins

before the new moral code of the Third Reich.

"I, like each of us, will prove my loyalty to the Führer

by being ready to give every drop of my blood for him," he said.

Hitler forgave him only on the day of the assassination attempt,

when Goebbels, the only one of Hitler's inner circle left in Berlin,

stood up to the rebel generals and took part in their execution.

It was on his orders that mass arrests were made in Berlin.

Hundreds were executed without trial or investigation in those days.

The Führer decorated Goebbels,

appointed him the Gauleiter of Berlin

and began entrusting him with visits to the most vulnerable frontline areas,

where the defence was held by Volksturm men and Hitler Youth boys.

Finally, in January 1945, the Führer came

to Goebbels' house for his birthday.

That day Goebbels said to his wife:

"With mein Führer, I'll rise from the ashes.

"With mein Führer, I shall perish.

There is no other choice."

Goebbels was ruled out by Stierlitz as a potential candidate

for negotiations with the West,

because he had already been compromised

and stripped of political power by Hitler.

This was never forgotten by either his foes or comrades.

Secondly, he had no links to the army or the secret police.

No one would negotiate with a statesman

who had no real power behind him.

And finally, he was fanatically devoted to Hitler.

London.

London was broadcasting upbeat music.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra

was playing a tune from "Sun Valley Serenade."

Himmler liked that film, and a copy had been bought in Sweden.

Since then, the film was often shown in the basement

of the Reich Security Office,

especially during night bombings,

when interrogations were impossible.

So Göring and Goebbels were ruled out.

Bormann or Himmler?

Bormann or Himmler, which of the two?

-Yes, Mr. Bolzen? -Listen, Paul...

Today you can go to town to see your children.

Be back tomorrow by 6 a.m.

And if I'm still here, make me some strong coffee - the strongest you can brew.

-Alright, Mr. Bolzen. -Now you may go.

Stierlitz was waiting for his agent. His name was Klaus.

He'd been recruited two years earlier - and quite willingly.

The former proofreader liked to court danger.

He worked like an artist,

disarming his interlocutors with sincerity and blunt opinions.

He was allowed to say anything

as long as he delivered prompt results.

18 Feb 1945 10:34 p.m.

And here I don't agree with you.

You're so eager to convince me that man descended from the monkey,

as if you've met that monkey and it whispered something in your ear.

Did God whisper in your ear that He created man?

The existence of God can't be proven, you may only believe in Him.

-You believe in the monkey, I in God. -No.

I don't believe in the monkey, but in man,

who descended from the monkey. Yes, yes...

Did he serve food to you there?

How do you...

You believe in the monkey in man,

and I believe in God, who is in every man.

In every man? Do you see Him in the Führer? In Himmler?

I caught him, didn't I?

Yes.

Why don't you answer my question?

Where's He in the Führer? Where's He in Himmler?

That's a tough question.

I see you haven't been lucky with your cellmates.

And we had some amazing debates.

You know, Pastor, I got my education in prison.

Honestly.

In our cells there were no easy questions.

I had pickpockets as my cellmates.

With them, you know, it's not debates you get.

I see you miss a good debate.

Well, I don't know...

Thank you.

Thank you.

-Well, how is it? -Good.

Just delicious, thank you very much.

And what is this?

What is this?

These are the children of my organ player.

Twins.

He gives them music lessons.

Well, he isn't supposed to, but I let him.

One is out of tune.

Ludwig, the one who is shorter.

Great.

Yes.

Great.

But how about my question?

It's like this.

We're talking with you about human nature.

Of course, among those scoundrels, Hitler and Himmler,

you might find traces of, so to speak, a fallen angel.

But their whole nature has been so deeply subordinated to the laws

of brutality, violence and lies

that there's essentially nothing human left in them.

No, Pastor, you're evading a direct answer.

You know, that clever habit of yours

of avoiding direct answers

once made me turn away from the Church.

Wait, wait - but after the camp you went back to the Church.

That's true.

But anyway, I know I'm right about this.

Because if I were truly a son of God, why would I have run away from the camp?

I'd have simply died there, turning the other cheek.

What do you mean, "turning the other cheek"?

You're trying to project a Biblical parable

onto the real machinery of the Nazi state.

Just think - a parable about human conscience and Nazism,

a machine that's fundamentally devoid of conscience.

Well, I don't know...

You're not going to treat a stone in the road

or a wall you bump into as a living being like yourself.

Excellent.

You know, Pastor, your place is in Rome, with the tribunes.

But even so, I've caught you again.

So, according to you, it's possible to denounce

all that's base and vile in man?

Yes, of course, but only what's acquired, not what's innate.

Fine. Let me remind you, I was a reporter before my arrest..

And my reports were banned

by both the Nazis and the Church.

As for the Church, apparently

it opposed you because you erred

in judging human nature too harshly.

No, I wasn't judging man himself.

I was exposing the world of thieves and prostitutes.

The Hitlerites saw it as slander against the master race,

and the Church saw it as slander against mankind.

I'm not afraid of the truth.

You are. Well, maybe not you, but certainly your peers.

I was showing the wretched and the fallen, those who longed to come to church,

but the Church turned them away,

because the flock refused to accept the fallen among them,

and the pastor never went against his flock.

It's hard for the pastor to go against his flock.

But he shouldn't just follow his flock either.

I'm not condemning you for the truth.

I simply disagree with you about mankind's future.

In your reasoning, you're less a pastor than a politician.

And in every man you see nothing but a politician.

It's like seeing in a slide-rule

just a tool for driving in nails.

Besides, you... you get very nervous when you argue.

But you shouldn't - you're among friends.

No...

I get nervous not because of our argument.

You see...

I would like to...

get in contact with my comrades.

But I don't know...

you...

you...

Come on, spit it out. Speak up.

I've saved you from the pursuit

and I'll help you find your comrades.

But you're still too weak.

You're not yet ready for the fight.

I can't let you go like this.

You must rest first.

You didn't have a smoke over at the pastor's place.

I was suffering without tobacco.

The old man sure can talk,

but I felt like hanging myself with nothing to smoke.

But tell me...

When you smoke,

you start coughing, haven't you noticed?

Really? No, I haven't noticed.

Well...

So you're sure the old man will get you in contact?

Yes.

He'll do anything for me.

The very fact he sheltered a fugitive from a concentration camp

says a lot about his attitude toward the regime.

I especially enjoy working with intellectuals and the clergy.

It's fascinating to watch a man march willingly to his death.

Sometimes I felt like yelling to him: "Stop! Where are you going, you fool?"

Got any canned fish? I'm just going mad without fish.

You know, nerve cells need phosphorus.

I'll get you some good canned fish.

-Which do you prefer? -I like it in oil.

-Domestic or imported? -Imported.

It may be not patriotic, but I prefer

food and drink made either in America or France.

I'll get you a box of genuine French sardines.

Thank you.

They're in olive oil, very spicy, loaded with phosphorus.

I looked through your file yesterday.

I'd pay a lot just to take a peek at it.

It's not as interesting as you might think.

When you laugh,

when you talk or complain about your bad liver,

you make quite an impression,

especially when you know you've pulled off a complicated operation.

But your file's dull.

Just reports and denunciations.

Everything's mixed up, your reports... and reports on you.

No, it's not interesting. Something else caught my attention.

I've calculated that, based on your denunciations,

on your own initiative, 97 people have been arrested.

And not one of them said a word about you.

Not a single one.

And the Gestapo worked them over pretty thoroughly.

Why are you telling me this?

I don't know - maybe I'm trying to analyze it.

Did you ever feel a pang of conscience

when the people who sheltered you were later arrested?

The devil only knows.

Maybe I felt powerful, as if I were going into single combat.

I got caught up in the fight.

As for what happened to them afterward...

I don't know.

And what'll happen to any of us afterward?

Well, you may be right.

After us, the deluge.

Our people... all cowardice,

baseness, greed, betrayal. It runs through the blood.

You can't be free among slaves.

Then maybe it's better to be the freest of all the slaves.

Then maybe it's better to be the freest slave of them all.

Tell me, who came to see the pastor last night?

-Nobody. -About nine o'clock?

No, you're mistaken.

In any case, nobody came from your side. I was there alone.

-You had the house under watch? -Of course.

No one came last night.

But the night before last, his sister was there.

Oh, he adores her! He recognizes her just by her footsteps.

-He has a sister? -A sister and two nephews.

He dotes on them. He knows it's her the moment she opens the door...

So you're certain the old man will work for you?

As you know, I always get results.

Of course he will.

Actually, I feel within me the calling of an opposition leader,

a tribune, a commander.

I'll sway them all with my energy and logic.

That pastor is a very dangerous man.

You think so? Why?

Someone made a serious mistake letting him go free.

Perhaps. All right.

Good work, Klaus. But don't brag too much.

Now, back to business.

For the next few days, you'll be staying in one of our houses.

Because after that you'll have to do...

a very serious job.

Though it won't be my department.

Take a sheet of paper from the gray file

and write the following.

Standartenführer,

I'm dead tired.

I've got no strength left.

I've worked in good faith, but I can't go on.

I want to rest.

That's all. Klaus.

What for?

I think it'd do you some good to spend a week in Innsbruck.

There are casinos there,

and young women skiers still gliding down the slopes.

Without this official letter, I can't get you a week in paradise.

Otherwise, I'd be accused of being too soft on my favourite agents.

Thank you. Though I've enough money.

There's never too much money. Or is there?

No, not really.

They say it costs a lot these days to treat that... flu.

Try to remember again: Did anyone see you at the pastor's?

Nothing to remember. Nobody saw me.

We'll drop the letter off on our way to your new place.

Get an envelope.

And write another one to the pastor, so no suspicion arises.

Try to write it yourself. I won't disturb you.

Here's my third draft.

Honesty requires action.

Honesty requires action. Faith is built on struggle.

Therefore, I cannot forgive myself for inaction.

Inaction is worse than betrayal.

I am leaving to continue the fight.

-So? -Great.

Have you ever thought about writing?

No.

If I could write, would I ever have joined you?

Go on. Aren't we being honest with each other?

You wanted to say that if you could write,

you'd never have worked for us?

Something like that.

Not something like that - exactly that, right?

Yes.

Good for you. Why pretend with me?

No reason at all. Finish your cognac and let's go.

It's almost dawn. The bombers might be coming.

How far is the house?

About ten kilometers in the woods. It's quiet - you'll sleep well.

Tell me, Klaus, about that Minister Krauze,

did he say anything about former Minister Krauze?

No, not a word. I mentioned it in my report.

He shut down completely. I was afraid to press him.

You did the right thing.

-And nothing about Switzerland? -Absolutely nothing.

All right, we'll try approaching him from another angle.

Sure. The important thing is he agreed to help me.

Good man, that pastor!

Ah, what a beauty!

And the smell, eh? Delightful!

I'll surround myself with books now and read to my heart's content.

Books help me prepare for work.

-Do you like reading? -Yes, I do.

Me, too. I love to read.

A good book makes a man sharper,

smarter - even more complex, you might say.

Oh, what a beautiful place!

It has a strangely pleasant smell of decay.

For some reason, everyone condemned to death,

with whom I shared a cell before execution,

used to tell me how much they loved nature.

And, you know, they said it in such beautiful words.

I'd call them amazing words.

You know...