Original subtitles

TV Channel Russia

Written by Arif Aliev Art director Vladimir Menshov

Directed by Alexandr Baranov, Ramil Sabitov Camera - Maxim Shinkorenko

Production Designers Sergey Vorobjev, Sergey Onipenko

Music by Nikolai Rostov

Make-up Artists Marina Dedova, Ilona Levitskaya

Leading Editor Nadezhda Tarnovskaya

Leading Producer Alexei Kublitsky

Producers - Alexandr Akopov Ekaterina Efanova, Natalia Shneiderova

Empress Elizaveta I - Yulia Aug

Grand Duke Pyotr Fyodorovich, Emperor Peter III - Alexandr Yatsenko

Count Bestuzhev - Vladimir Menshov Count Lestocq - Konstantin Lavronenko Count Razumovsky - Alexandr Lazarev (Jr.)

Prince Saltykov - Rinal Mukhametov Captain Orlov - Sergey Strelnikov

Princess Johanna - Isabel Schosnig Count Shuvalov - Nikolai Kozak General Apraksin -Vitaly Kravchenko

Jemma - Elena Shamova Pimen - Ivan Dobronravov Matrena - Svetlana Korchagina

Prince Ponyatovsky - Aleksei Vorobyev Brekdorf - Maxim Kerin Betskoy - Kirill Rubtsov

Frederick II - Hartmut Krug Mardefelt - Vitus Eisenach Chetardie - Patrick Roullier Rollin

Nanny of Tsar Ivan VI - Valentina Talyzina

With Marina Alexandrova as Ekaterina II

AEKATERINA

Behind you!

Bastards!

There!

Attack him.

The Emperor's servants are as weak as he is.

Grigory, I thought I'd never see you again.

Go!

Alexey, ride forward, alert the regiment.

Go.

Speak, Alexander.

Ekaterina has fled the palace. With someone's help probably.

Several of my people were killed.

Search!

Find!

Ekaterina and everyone, every single one

who has helped her are to be sent to prison!

To the torture chambers!

Your Majesty,

I beg you!

Count, bring Ekaterina back to the palace.

Hush, you'll wake the baby.

Give me.

Here is your son, Grigory Orlov.

Son.

Hello...

- Ivan. - I named him Alexey.

Alexey won't do.

Ivan is a good name. Ivan is power and bravery,

a generous soul. And it's the father who should name a child.

We will christen him Alexey.

Let it be Alexey then.

I'll get used to it.

Lord willing, Alexey will have siblings.

No time for dreaming now.

It's time to think about rescue.

Grigory, I want to address officers.

I don't ask to agree; I ask to argue, think, and advise.

The soldiers and officers are very discontented now.

Entire Prussia is flooded with Russian blood.

And Pyotr has surrendered the victory.

- Do you think they'll stand for me? - They must.

They must, Ekaterina Alekseevna.

But isn't it better to wait for the Army to return from Prussia?

If they're late, I'll die in the prison or in a monastery!

I won't let it happen. Trust me.

You need to get your strength back. Rest now.

It's all in Lord's hands.

God be with you, Grigory.

If I'm needed, I'll be there at once.

As Russia withdraws from the war, its former allies, Austria and France, suffer a string of crushing defeats.

The Germans consider Emperor Frederick the winner.

By tilting the odds in Prussia’s favor, Pyotr Fyodorovich now faces the wrath of his own people.

Barracks of Izmailovsky Regiment June 1762

I ask for a resolute and swift advance.

I don't discuss the military course of the coup,

you know it and will do it better than me.

With God's help and your support I promise

to rule Russia fairly and prudently.

Catherine, we don't know yet who will support us

and who will prefer to betray us.

For the coup I need a hundred of resolute officers.

Above all they must be swift and ready to stand till the end.

On June 29th,

Pyotr Fyodorovich will be wed.

And after that he'll be able to do anything to you and to me.

We must advance before that.

Brave officers, who is with me?

Line up!

First platoon, line up!

Fifth squadron, line up!

Second squadron, line up!

My angel,

protect me from rage and envy,

defeat my enemies, give me strength.

It's time, Your Majesty.

Arrest her and send her to the fortress. Why do you loiter?

Your Majesty, to arrest her, we must crush a guard regiment.

Moreover we don't know who else supports the coup.

Why don't you know? You must know!

The secret office has been disbanded as per your order.

Our investigative capabilities are limited.

You're right. Good deeds have turned into evil.

If I ever intend to do another good deed,

please, remind me of this terrible day.

Your Majesty, you'd better leave.

We shall stay and gather the officers loyal to you.

Why do you need to gather anybody?

They must come and protect me on their own. They are sworn to me.

Your Majesty, this is a coup.

Some of them have already decided to go against you.

The situation is highly unpredictable.

What do you suggest? To run?

For me to run? I'm the Emperor!

Let Ekaterina take her son and leave.

Tell her I don't mind. Can you tell her that?

Your Majesty, we cannot.

For another thing, it's prudent to take Pavel with you.

Alexander, it's low - to hide behind a child.

Do you want to save yourself?

I do.

Prepare to fight!

There will be many of them, Pyotr.

Don't ask me, Lizaveta, I won't run.

20 years of waiting, the longed-for freedom.

I am the lawful Emperor.

I am not ill.

I've never felt better.

I love and I am loved.

And now this is the end.

Disgrace is ahead.

The life of a dependant from the silly relatives in Holstein.

I prefer death.

Your Majesty, here it is, the seal.

Where is the will?

There might not be a will at all.

What will be your first decree, Your Majesty?

I think I know where it might be.

Officers,

I'm a bad commander and a bad Emperor.

I order you to surrender your weapons!

Surrender them!

Save yourselves! Run, run!

Go, Your Majesty.

I will delay them.

No, no, my friend.

You go.

Save yourself.

Kneel before the Empress!

Are you cold, Your Highness?

Your Majesty.

Count, I have always respected you.

Are you looking for this?

- Nobody needs it anymore. - Give me.

Let me take a look.

The will of Empress Elizabeth.

I declare count Alexey Razumovsky

the heir to the Russian throne after my death.

You had wed her.

She named you the heir to the throne.

Please note that both the will

and the registry of marriage are genuine.

But you decided to keep it a secret.

Why so?

Do what you want to do.

Count,

would you like to return to the service?

Let me leave for my estate, Your Majesty.

As you wish.

If you surrender the palace, we shall remain friends.

Your friendship is invaluable to me.

But let me ask for one favor.

Don't execute Pyotr Fyodorovich.

- Why do you ask for him? - He considered me a friend.

Was he mistaken?

Your Majesty,

Empress Elizabeth did many dark deeds.

But for the 20 years of her reign she hadn't executed a person.

She left alive the Emperor she had dethroned.

Ivan lives a terrible life.

It's impossible.

Yet it's a life.

I don't intend to reave Pyotr of life.

But the Army considers him a traitor.

Lisaveta, why do I reject the life of a dependant?

We will love each other, raise our children,

play ball. Is it happiness to be an Emperor?

Is it really the end?

Would I leave no memory behind me as I die?

Not a single of your actions resulted in someone's death.

You are kind.

I'm ashamed, Liza!

It's all dust. Soon you'll witness my pitiful demise.

No, I want to live my life with you, Pyotr,

in love and happiness.

I want to listen to your violin, want to raise our children...

But if this is never to be, we shall die together.

We will be joined in Heaven.

A very clever person and I've never guessed it.

Your Majesty, why then we let this clever person go?

As I see it, Empress Elizabeth herself named him

- the Emperor in her will. - There is no will.

And never has been. He rejected it on his own.

Grigory, promise me

that you won't lay a finger on Pyotr.

I promise, Your Majesty.

Ekaterina is kind

deep down in her soul.

She won't do that.

Blood of Peter the Great flows in you.

They wouldn't dare to lay their hand on you.

What are you doing, gentlemen?

Are you mad? It is a theater!

It was a theater.

Now there will be stables.

What do you want from us, gentlemen?

From you personally we want nothing. Go.

What? I won't go anywhere. I'll stay with Peter.

Gentlemen, Elizaveta is my wife;

she has the right to know anything you want to say to me!

Don't touch her! Unhand her! Liza!

- Hush, don't struggle! - Let me go!

Petya!

Pyotr Fyodorovich, write it down.

Let me go, you brute, unhand me!

Quiet, you mad woman! Go away, your lame majesty!

He will relinquish everything and I don't need anything;

- just let us be together! - Are you mad?

Why do you want that? Do you want to die?

What?

Petya dear! They'll kill you! Run!

Shut up or I'll cripple your other leg.

Move fast and gag her.

For my entire life I relinquish

the aforementioned state as I have no desire to rule it

either absolutely

or by any other form of government

as well as to strive for it

by means of somebody else's assistance.

Why do I abdicate in favor of Ekaterina?

Pavel is the heir to the throne.

Sign it.

I wanted to implement the reforms.

I wished for Russia to become a European state.

She is European.

It is Frederick who thinks us below him.

And you gave up Prussia that had sworn to Russia.

You are a weak man. You are a traitor.

Losing East Prussia would've eliminated the very thought

about the German motherland. Russia and Prussia are bound.

- I saved Russia! - I won't argue with you.

I just tell you that they are ravings of a madman.

The Russian Emperor shouldn't care about the German homeland.

Sign it, we are waiting.

What will happen to Elizaveta?

Is she pregnant?

In that case nothing will happen.

She'll be dismissed from the maids of honour and married off.

But Elizaveta wishes to marry me.

- Too late. - Watch your tongue, Alexey.

Why?

He has thousands of our friends' lives on his head.

He thought he was playing with the toy soldiers.

Will you give me poison?

We don't have any poison.

It's my own fault.

I matured too late.

Too late.

Shlisselburg fortress June 1762

I am very glad to see you.

To see your face,

your eyes,

your body.

Excuse the disorder;

I am Emperor Ivan VI

- and you are? - Ekaterina.

Ekaterina...

- I've been told you can't... - Speak?

No, I can speak;

it is that nobody has spoken to me for a long time.

But I know Bible by heart

and I recite it aloud to myself.

- Who gave you the Bible? - My kind nanny did.

And this soldier was given to me by a kind magician.

His name is Pyotr.

I pray for him every day.

I haven't brought you anything.

I am glad to see you.

I will pray for you too.

Will you set me free?

I will.

I saw a bird once.

It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!

Your Majesty, do you know about the order to put

the secret prisoner to death upon an attempt to free him?

Does the order stand?

The order stands.

Will be any further orders about the fate of the secret prisoner?

Act upon your conscience.

Please, clarify, Your Majesty.

You are a brave and noble person; you will make

- the only right choice. - I understand, Your Majesty.

It's terrible.

Officer, stop it! It is an antique violin, a precious instrument;

you might ruin it.

Alas, I was never taught to play a violin.

Care to play, Your ex-Majesty?

Open up, I have an order from the Empress to free the secret prisoner!

I want to see the bird!

- So he can talk? - It doesn't matter now.

Why have you come?

My place is next to you and my son.

You are 7 years late.

Soldiers must serve.

Good night to you.

September, 1762

By the Grace of God, Ekaterina II.

Empress and autocratrix of all the Russias,

Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod,

Queen of Kazan, Queen of Astrakhan,

Queen of Siberia, Monarchess of Suzdal,

and Grand Duchess of Pskov,

Duchess of Estland, Livonia, Karelia,

Tver, Yugra, Perm,

Vyatka, Bulgaria and other,

Chernigov, Ryazan,

Rostov, Yaroslavl,

Belozero, Khutor...

Empress Ekaterina II was crowned on September 13th, 1762,

and reigned her empire for 34 years.

She was named 'the Great' while alive.

Of the lands Circassian, Caucasian and other,

the hereditary Monarchess and Domina.