TSAR'S DAUGHTER MARIE（14）

EXT. TYUMEN - URALS -- SIBERIA -- NIGHT

The Romanovs and their retainers board the STEAMER RUSSIA sailing down the river Tur.

EXT. GOVERNOR'S HOUSE -- TOBOLSK -- DAY

The harsh Siberia wind whistles through Tobolsk, a quiet and isolated town. The Governor's House is located on the Freedom Street.

INT. CORRIDOR -- GOVERNOR'S HOUSE -- TOBOLSK -- DAY

Colonel Eugene Kobylinsky leads three hundred soldiers of the Special Detachment to guard the imperial family.

KOBYLINSKY

Nicholas, you shall remove the epaulettes from your coats.

The soldiers search the prisoners one by one. Some soldiers treat the prisoners friendly, others brutally.

EXT. STREETS -- PETROGRAD -- OCTOBER 1917 -- NIGHT

SUPEROVER: OCTOBER 1917, WINTER PALACE, PETROGRAD

The CRUISER AURORA moors opposite the Winter Palace at which the guns from the Peter & Paul Fortress take aim. Bolshevik soldiers assemble in the Palace Square, equipped with artilery and armoured cars.   

Commissar VASILY YAKOVLEV, thirty years old, in his big fur hat and sheepskin coat, perches on a CANNON and directs a detachment of SOLDIERS. Vasily turns his head and waves to Victor whose face is visible among the soldiers. Victor pushes his way through the crowd toward the cannon.

VICTOR

Hey, Cousin Vasily, what can I do for you?

VASILY

Come on, Victor, traverse the artillery toward the Winter Palace.

VICTOR

Yes, Sir.

Guns are fired at the Winter Palace.

INT. WINTER PALACE -- PETROGRAD -- DAY

Interloping the Winter Palace, the Bolshevik SOLDIERS arrest the MINISTERS of the Provisional Government and imprison them together with the tsarist OFFICIALS. The palace is overwhelmed by the uproar of cataclysmic revolutionary movement.

EXT. BALCONY -- BOLSHEVIK HEADQUARTERS -- PETROGRAD -- DAY

LENIN waves his arms to the WORKERS and SOLDIERS who applaud and cheer to celebrate their victory. Victor and his buddy SASHA, a robust young man, are among the crowd carrying Lenin's portraits, red flags and banners.

SASHA

Look, Lenin's over there, giving speeches and waving to us from the balcony of Kshessinska's mansion.

VICTOR

Kshessinska? The ballerina? The Tsar's ex-lover?

SASHA

Yeah. The ballerina fled to Paris, so...

VICTOR

So her mansion has been commandeered as Bolshevik Headquarters.

SASHA

Yes. All power to the Soviets.

PARTICIPANTS

(shouting)

Lone live Lenin. Long live the Bolsheviks. Down with the Tsar. Down with the autocracy. Overthrow the Provisional Government. Power must transfer from the Provisional Government to the Soviets. We come to power. We need peace, land and bread. We're the masters. We proletariats are the masters.

March along the path to a new socialist revolution.

INT. BALCONY -- GOVERNOR'S HOUSE -- TOBOLSK -- DAY

The imperial family seats on the balcony which faces the Freedom Street. Anna holds a lace parasol for Alexandra.

OLGA

It's a marvelous day.

MARIE

What a pity, we can't take a walk along the riverbank.

ANASTASIA

We'd have had fun in the woods.

TATIANA

It's not too bad to read on the balcony.

NICHOLAS' POV FROM THE BALCONY

A contingent of Bolshevik SOLDIERS parades through the Freedom Street, shouting revolutionary slogans and singing Russian military songs.

Some OFFICERS ride down the street in the troikas. They stop in front of the Governor's House and scrutinize the prison compound, with rifles at their hands.

BACK TO SCENE

Nicholas grows nervous and turns to his family.

NICHOLAS

Olga, take your sisters to your bedroom.

OLGA

Yes, Papa.

Nicholas escorts Alexandra leaving the balcony.

ALEXANDRA

What lies in store for us?

NICHOLAS

All is in God's hands. All our hopes are on Him.

INT. NICHOLAS' STUDY -- GOVERNOR'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

The letters and documents are jumbled up. Sitting near the fireplace, Nicholas burns papers and watches the flames lick around the edges of them, curl, melt and swallow them bit by bit.

His senile valet Terenty squats on his heels and pokes the fire. Terenty helps throw into the fire a pack of paper including a BOOK. Nicholas snatches the book from the flame and stamps out a fire, leaving the floor strewed with simmering ashes.

Nicholas dusts the book titled WAR AND PEACE and reads it attentively.