Original subtitles

[stately jingle]

[soft violin music]

[bell tolling]

- [Narrator] In the summer of 1918,

Sidney Reilly was in Moscow plotting the overthrow of Lenin,

who had signed a separate peace treaty

with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk.

Reilly was one of a dozen like-minded Allied officers

who were determined to remove the Bolshevik leader,

but he was the only one to consider placing himself

at the head of a new government.

His plan was to persuade the Latvian troops,

who garrisoned the Kremlin, to deliver Lenin into his hands.

In return, he promised them that he,

with the help of the British,

would liberate Latvia from the Germans

and guarantee its independence after the war.

But while his negotiations with them dragged on,

the Cheka, the newly founded Bolshevik secret police,

led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, were hot on Reilly's trail.

- Natalia.

- Good morning, Sidney.

[Natalia screaming]

[dramatic music]

Sidney!

Sidney!

- They took Natalia, we should leave right away.

[suspenseful music]

[gun firing]

[family screaming]

- It's the next floor!

- We got everything?

- Well, except for the money.

- Get it!

Sidney-- - Get it!

[gun firing]

- For God's sakes, Sidney!

[guns firing]

[glass shattering]

- [Dagmara] A rich corpse buys nothing but his own grave!

- [Reilly] For God's sakes, Dagmara, they're English notes!

- Why don't you just admit you're tight with money?

- [Reilly] Why don't you admit that

for one moment you've lost your nerve?

[gun firing]

- [Woman] Stop your nonsense and go!

- You asked for the latest news?

She'll give it to you.

She was in his bed till this morning.

- A slight exaggeration.

- They let you keep your coat.

Put it over this one, she needs it.

- [Natalia] Sonya.

- You're a friend of Dagmara's?

- Yes, I'm Natalia Chekolova.

- This is Elena Petrovna and I am Marie Friede.

- [Natalia] I know.

- What was all that about?

- Sidney Reilly was staying at our apartment.

They raided it this morning.

I was arrested.

I think he and Dagmara got away.

When did she get here?

- Last night.

- She needs a lot of warmth.

She always slept on the stove at our place.

[knocking]

- Who is it?

- [Lisveta] Lisveta.

- How was the journey?

- [Lisveta] Awful, the Cheka are everywhere.

- And Petrograd?

- Disgusting.

Hundreds of arrests.

There's a commissar in charge called Uritzsky.

He's threatened to shoot anyone with a posh accent.

The whole town's going around talking like that.

And how is it here?

- Well, they got almost everybody.

Most of the women are in prison and they shot the men.

- So that leaves us.

- What's the poster for?

- Target practice.

- Morning, sir.

- Morning, Berzin.

What's the position at Archangel?

- No more allowed in since the first party.

- So how many is that?

- 600.

- 600?

- That's what Cromie says.

- Must be the advance party.

- No, that's all that are coming ashore.

I agree with you.

It's an act of unbelievable folly.

What about Savinkov?

- He can only hold out for a few more days,

without reinforcements he's finished.

He planned his rising to coincide with the landing.

- Good morning, gentlemen.

- [All] Good morning, Ilyich.

- Only 600, isn't that good news?

- Nevertheless, the damage is done.

The Czechs have seized Kazan and there

are reports that Savinkov is on the move.

- Don't believe that.

Savinkov is a spent force.

The Czechs are a different matter.

- Ilyich, this is your schedule for the next month.

- You heard that gentlemen, for the next month?

There is an optimist.

Colonel Berzin?

- Sir?

- I want to be kept informed of the situation at Kazan

and I want a report on the position at Archangel.

- [Berzin] Yes, Ilyich.

- It refers here to the Congress

of the Metropol Hotel on Thursday.

It says that Berzin will be responsible for security.

- That's right.

- But this is a Cheka duty.

- The Latvians look after my security

on party occasions, Felix.

You are responsible for all other engagements.

I thought that was understood.

- Now you know I have reservations about the Latvians.

Especially now the British are landing.

They're quite capable of changing

sides and handing you over.

- Felix, you're not a soldier.

Soldiers do not think that way.

[knocking]

- These are the casualty figures

on the social revolutionary revolt.

- Thank you, Colonel.

- Replacements are on their way from Petrograd.

- Thank you.

- They won't be acting alone.

They'll be supported by every military mission

in the city; American, French, British.

- British?

- [Felix] They'll be leading it.

- Get me proof.

- At seven, Lenin leaves the Kremlin for the Metropol Hotel.

- With an escort?

- A Company.

B Company will remain,

occupying headquarters and seize the telegraph.

- Yes, now you understand the importance of the telegraph?

We can control Russia from there.

So the prime objective is the capture of those machines.

- Yes.

Then, A Company will arrest Lenin and the other leaders

as soon as they reach the Metropol.

- Good.

- It will require rehearsal.

Suspicions are bound to be aroused.

- Go ahead, by the time the Cheka have

found out what you're up to it will be too late.

- We have three days.

- Is there any word on Marie Friede?

- I'm told she's in good health.

- I'm mainly concerned about the hostages.

They'll shoot everyone in the Lubyanka if we're not careful.

- They will have to be warned.

[chanting]

- [Narrator] Following his agreement

with the Latvian regiment,

Reilly turned his attention to the Russian church.

Their support was vital if his plan was to succeed.

- Cigar?

- No, thanks.

- Article five, Archbishop Tykkhon

to be named regent of the new nation.

[coins clattering]

It will unnecessary to give me official status.

Let it be an understanding.

You merely announce on the morning of the liberation

that members of the new government will call

upon the Primate of Moscow and ask for his blessing.

That will suffice.

Article six, the lives and properties of

all Bolsheviks shall be guaranteed under the law.

How are you going to do that?

We know that within days the whites

will come in and sack the city and if

they're delayed Savinkov will do it for them.

- That is why I want to be in control before they arrive.

- Will you excuse us?

- How's it going?

- A bit of a snag, old boy.

The characters who are advising him

are asking for hard currency.

- Since when?

- Ten minutes ago.

Something's up.

[bell ringing]

- [Reilly] Where do we get something harder than this?

- I have been told that the czar is dead.

He was murdered at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.

- I'm sorry.

- His family have also been shot.

The reign of the Romanovs is over.

[bell tolling]

Article seven.

[knocking]

- Yes?

What is it, Smidchen?

- [Smidchen] It's Thursday's duty roster for the Metropol.

The guard's been changed.

It's headed by Major Anders.

- Anders?

- A close friend of Colonel Berzin, sir.

- Where have you been assigned?

- To the depot.

You'll also observe the guard's been handpicked.

They're not even drawn from the same platoon.

- Thank you, Smidchen.

You're a Latvian.

What would you do in this situation?

- Felix, I want you to go to Petrograd.

Uritzsky's losing his grip.

I can't go, Congress starts on Thursday.

- Cancel it.

- Why?

- Because I'm absolutely certain

that some attempt will be made on your life.

- But you have no proof.

- None.

- Who saved me from the Socialist revolutionaries?

Who stormed the post office?

It was Colonel Berzin and my Latvians.

Who leads the fight against the Czechs at Kazan?

More Latvians!

Anyway, I can't.

It will look as if I'm giving in to pressure.

- Then postpone it, if only for a fortnight.

- If you can't deal with it now,

what difference will that make?

- It'll give them time to make mistakes.

And remember they made their plans,

passwords rehearsed, last orders given?

- Very well.

The All-Russian Congress of Soviets

will be postponed until the 6th of September.

- Thank you.

- For what?

- For taking my advice.

- After the 6th you go to Petrograd.

You heard that?

- Yeah.

- Can you cope?

[laughs]

What about my engagements?

- Well, for a start we could

reschedule your speech at Michelson's.

What about Sunday?

- It's too soon.

- We can do it.

[thundering]

[smacking]

[crowd chattering]

- What do you want?

- [Reilly] Information.

- Who are you?

- Never mind who I am.

Just give the man in charge that order.

- Wait here.

- [Officer] What do you want?

- I want details about the prisoners names on that sheet.

Dates of arrest, charges preferred and cell numbers.

- This will take some time--

- You've got five minutes.

[knocking]

- Yes?

Wait outside.

- [Officer] Very good, sir.

- I've got all the details, except Friede.

She's special category.

Refer to Commissar Dzerzhinsky, I've been told.

- Thank you.

- Your brother admitted conspiring with

the British to subvert the Kremlin guard.

He exonerated his fellow officers from any involvement.

He was shot this morning.

Of course, there will,

will be those who will seek to avenge him.

- Has the regiment been informed?

- [Felix] No.

- You're afraid of the consequences.

- We're prepared to return the body

under certain conditions.

You must use the authority you undoubtedly

have with the men to see that there is

no reaction on their part against the government.

- What you're trying to tell me is that

there is going to be an uprising.

That as a result of this incident

the Latvian brigade will be in its vanguard.

And you want me to use that little

authority I have to stop it?

And in return you will give me my brother's body?

Well, the answer is no.

- You might save a lot of bloodshed.

We know what's going on.

Now, if you have any compassion

at all you should let them know that.

- How can I?

I'm locked up.

- We'd let you go free.

I could have your papers cleared within an hour.

Take her back downstairs.

- What was that all about?

- Just more questions.

- Has it been announced?

For when?

The 30th?

Was there any reason given?

There wasn't, huh?

No, no, just curious.

Yes, thank you.

Yes, you too.

- Robbie, I'm leaving for Petrograd.

Hill and I are gonna pick up some money from Cromie.

Now look, here's a list of my agents who are being

held at the Lubyanka, also some of George's.

Now if there's any problem on Thursday,

I want you to see the central committee.

Just bang this on Karachan's desk

and tell him these are protected people.

If they shoot this lot, we'll shoot--

- They postponed the Congress.

[dramatic music]

Lenin's speaking at the Michelson factory on Sunday.

The Metropol meeting's off.

- For how long?

- Till the 30th.

- Oh, my God.

Ten days.

I'm going to Petrograd to pick up the money.

You keep your head down.

We'll see if we can set this thing off.

And get her out of here, she's another potential hostage.

- [Robbie] So am I.

- But you won't leave, will you?

- Not bloody likely.

- Yes, well, you be careful.

[crowd chattering]

- You've got the motor car?

- Yes.

- You've heard about the Metropol?

- Yeah.

- And what do you think, can we keep the lid on it?

- For 10 days, in Russia?

I doubt it.

I've spoken to Cromie.

Lockhart was right, they're not sending in any more troops.

Some order from London.

- Well, that's finished Savinkov.

- Yeah.

He had enough ammunition for 15 days,

so even if we can hold, he can't.

[snapping]

It's a damn bad show!

- You'd think they'd set out to sink us.

- Maybe they have.

I wouldn't put it past them.

There must be a lot of people in London who might prefer

to see anyone running Russia but you and Savinkov.

What are you two in their eyes?

A secret agent and a crazed ex-terrorist.

Even Savinkov's party,

the League for the Regeneration of Russia.

Sounds like a hair tonic.

- Shut up, George!

- So what are you going to do?

[sighing]

- I don't know.

- Heard the news?

- Yes.

Everyone's ready to go.

I've even got the patriarch down

for a thanksgiving service next Sunday.

Jerusalem church, all the trimmings.

- We can still do it.

All we have to do is to hold out for 10 days.

- The moment he leaves you must

make your way down these stairs.

You must reach the boiler room before

he does and wait for him there.

And as he passes below you,

you must start down these stairs.

As soon as you step off you must stop thinking,

start counting, say a poem.

Just get to the bottom of the stairs.

And as you fall in behind him...

- Bang.

- Just get him before he gets to the car.

Whatever you do, don't ask him a question.

One word and bang will go your resolution.

- Bang. [laughs]

- Just remember your dead comrades

and get him before he gets to the car.

[engine revving]

[sighing]

[groaning]

[gun firing]

[doorbell ringing]

- Nobody's home.

[gun firing]

Get in!

- Park the car around the back.

That chap is not going to go away.

[engine revving]

- A customary warm reception.

- A disgruntled critic of our foreign policy, I suspect.

[gun firing] [glass shattering]

There's another one up here.

- Savinkov?

- Yes.

I'm afraid he's been crying all night.

Tears of rage.

- You bastard, you betrayed us.

- I did not betray you.

- There was no army.

- I know.

- What, I...

What I'll never forgive you for

is that we had them in our hands.

With only just 10,000 men we could have taken Moscow.

[crying]

Even now, all that stands between us

and Moscow are the local militias.

- We can still do it, Boris.

In 10 days' time.

- A palace revolt.

Without an army to back it!

- We have the Latvians.

And within a week the Czechs will have

broken through at Kazan.

- Yes, Latvians, Czechs, Japanese, Poles.

Where are the Russians?

I'll tell you where they are.

They're lying along the railway track

from here to Yuroslav slaughtered in the hundreds.

They're hanging from the telegraph poles.

Their bodies choke the Volga.

While gangs of foreigners decide the future

of their children in London, in Paris

and Berlin and Washington and Tokyo!

[crying]

- Within two weeks we shall be forming our own government.

And I don't want you to sit round here

between now and then endlessly complaining!

You will be the war minister in our cabinet,

so I suggest you get to Kazan,

which is where the action is,

and start to talk things over with your friends there!

- We'll just pick up the threads of what we've been through?

- You have 10 days.

- Let's hope that this time you don't get it wrong.

[gun firing outside]

We'll do it.

- I've come for the money, Cromie.

[gun firing] [glass shattering]

You've still got it?

- Yes.

- I spoke to Olaf before coming here.

We had tea at Golokayava Street.

He told me that the Petrograd Cheka

have a wide knowledge of what's going on here.

In particular, they know about the safe and what's in it.

Now, unless you have any firm idea about what

you want to do with it, I suggest you give it to me.

I need the money, Cromie.

- It's Navy money.

- I hate to pull rank on you, commander,

but I have orders from the British Prime Minister

to do what I think is necessary to remove Lenin from office.

Now, I need this money.

I need all of it and I need it now.

- I'm sorry, Sidney,

but the Prime Minister is not a Navy man.

You will have to get an express order

from the director of Naval Intelligence.

- Very well, then, let's get it.

We'll cable London this minute.

How long before we get a reply?

- If we mark it for the Cabinet, about 12 hours.

- Good.

- Of course,

the peace in Brest-Litovsk was a harsh one.

Of course, the Germans took advantage

of the situation which manifested itself there.

They've carted away vast quantities of coal.

They've harvested our wheat.

They've dismantled our factories.

Of course, we have not only been robbed, but humiliated!

But the answer is not, I submit,

to go back to war, as so many of

our young people would have us do.

Why should we send them to fight

an imperialist war when our so-called allies,

these very capitalists who urge us to attack Germany,

are landing troops in Russia with no other

motive than to destroy our revolution?

[crowd booing]

- What about our comrades in the Ukraine?

- What?

- You are abandoning the workers of the Ukraine!

- How can we have a revolution unless

we defeat the German army in the Ukraine?

- I know the argument that we should continue

to oppose the German military machine

bayonet for bayonet and corpse for corpse

until German society disintegrates the way ours has done.

In this way, we are told we shall act

as midwife to the German revolution.

Well, I am a great believer in the German revolution

and I believe that it will happen very soon.

But, if the price for the creation of

the German revolution is the destruction of our own,

then I believe we shall stand accused in the eyes

of the Socialist world of wanton carelessness.

We have been given a unique historical opportunity

to forge a new society on this earth.

It is our duty to take it.

[crowd cheering]

- Quiet!

On your behalf, I should like to thank

the chairman of the committee of the People's Commissariat,

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin for addressing us here today!

[crowd cheering]

- [Lenin] Went quite well, I thought.

- It was wrong to say that the American workers want peace,

they're joining up in droves over there.

- For all the wrong reasons.

- They may be wrong, Ilyich, but that's no reason

for you to misrepresent them.

They believe that the success of the revolution

depends on winning the war against Germany.

- [Lenin] If that's their position, I've never heard of it.

- Sir?

May I put a question to you?

- Yes, my dear.

- How may we build a new world when our

first act is to compromise with the old?

- Compromise?

- By signing the treaty with the Germans.

- It's not compromise, it's common sense.

Is the car outside?

- Yes, yes, Ilyich, we're on schedule.

- But when they brought you the treaty,

when you read it?

- Child, I never read it.

- You never read it?

- Child,

I would dine with the devil

if I thought it would safeguard our revolution.

Oh, child!

[gun firing]

[rattling]

[couple screaming]

- Get dressed.

You too, comrade.

- [Moura] Elena, Margaret!

How are you?

[women chattering]

[telephone ringing]

- British embassy.

- Sidney?

It's me, Lenin's been shot.

[dramatic music]

- Is he dead?

- No, but nearly, he's got a bullet in the brain.

Now listen, they're certain the British are behind it

and they'll be out there within the hour.

They want Cromie and the money.

- What's happening in Moscow?

- There's hell to pay.

Hundreds of arrests, hostages shot and an atmosphere

of total panic which is spilling over here.

It's everyone for himself, dear boy.

- Someone shot Lenin.

[dramatic music]

[fire crackling]

- This is your death warrant.

- What do I do?

- Sign it.

- [Guard] Not you, you stay here.

[slapping]

- Please sign here.

[gun firing]

- Where'd you leave the motor car?

- [George] The stables!

- Go out the back over the roof.

- What about these?

- They're not interested in the ciphers, George!

- They could give them to the Germans.

- Get the car!

[banging]

- The gentlemen from the Cheka are downstairs.

Do I let them in?

- No, Jenkins.

See that the last of the ciphers are destroyed.

[gun firing]

I'm not going.

- Look Cromie, this isn't a ship.

You don't have to go down with it.

- This is a British embassy

and it will be defended as such.

- Bricks and bloody mortar, Cromie!

- Captain Reilly,

I have always considered myself a levelheaded chap

with a distinct distaste for the theatrical.

Therefore, it's doubly unfortunate

that I have to go through with this business.

But in the circumstances I can see no alternative.

- Well, good luck, Cromie.

I hope you make it.

[dramatic music]

[guns firing]

[thudding]

- Is he staying?

- Yes!

[gun firing]

[crashing]

- Will he live?

- This is the last batch.

Do you want to check it?

There are persons of interest on this list.

Former comrades.

And lovers.

- [Felix] Careful!

[somber music]

[machine gun firing]

- They just released Moura, that's how I know.

- What about Lockhart?

- They're still holding him.

Your name is, of course, prominently

displayed throughout the town.

Large sums of money are being offered for your capture,

which we're told in the newspapers, is imminent.

Though, in fact, it's Lockhart as consul

who's named as the chief villain of the piece.

- Where did that girl come from?

- Fanya Kaplan, social revolutionist, was proven.

- I remember her.

Quiet, mousy.

A nothing.

[laughs]

- Well, she's cooked our goose.

- What's the news on Lenin?

- Oh, he'll live,

and he'll never quite be the same again, they say.

- You know, I thought I'd done it.

I really thought I had it in my hand.

- You did, old boy.

[dramatic music]

[soft violin music]

[electronic jingle]