Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

Laurence Olivier: Count Witte

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Quotes 

• Count Witte : None of you will be here when this war ends. Everything we've fought for will be lost. Everything they've loved will be broken. The victors will be as cursed as the defeated. The world will grow old, and men will wander about lost in the ruins and go mad. Tradition, virtue, restraint, they'll all go. I'm not mourning for myself but for the people who will come after me. They will live without hope. And all they will have will be guilt, revenge, and terror. And the world will be full of fanatics and trivial fools.

• Tsar Nicholas II : I want a good life for my people.

  Count Witte : On your terms.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a czar. They need tradition, not this. They're the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in.

  Count Witte : I see. So, they talk, pray, march, plead, petition, and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police spies! And now, after today, they will be shot! Is this God's will? Are these His methods? So, make war on your own people. How long do you think they're going to stand and let you shoot them? You ask me who's responsible! You ask!

• Nikolasha : Here is some wonderful news. A telegram from the Kaiser. Just what we wanted. Offering to mediate between us and Austria.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I knew I could count on Willy. You see? He signed it, "Your very sincere and devoted friend and cousin, Willy."

  Count Witte : With due respect to your cousin, sire, the Kaiser is a deceitful megalomaniac. If he is offering to help, then it is time to pray.

• Count Witte : I'm old, sir. I've seen so many wars. They all seemed so important at the time. Now, I don't even remember what they were called. Millions of dead men. I don't know why. Nobody knows.

• Count Witte : Have I Your Majesty's permission to review the facts again? If Port Arthur falls...

  Tsar Nicholas II : No fact begins with "if."

  Count Witte : Port Arthur has been under siege for six months. It has cost us 30,000 dead. If it ... A student stopped me in the street the other day. "Excuse me, sir, but why are we at war?" "Because, my boy, we want Korea, but the Japanese would insist on fighting us for it." "Thank you, sir, but what does Russia need Korea for?" "Because, my boy, we have no ice-free port on the Pacific." "I see. In that case, sir, it isn't good enough." He's right, sir. It's not good enough at all. Imagine, sire. Imagine that you are a factory worker. You're really poor. Your belly is never full. You freeze eight months of the year. Your children have no school, no doctor. Your country taxes you and sends your sons a continent away to die on a piece of land on the Pacific. Now, sir, Japan is a third-rate power. If she defeats us, if Port Arthur falls, we shall be disgraced in the eyes of the world, and here at home, we shall have an insurrection on our hands.

  Tsar Nicholas II : My people love me, Sergei Yulyevich.

  Count Witte : They want a constitution and the right to vote for an elected Duma. They're angry, and they're serious.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Are you advising me to give my rights away?

  Count Witte : I'm advising you to stop a hopeless war.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Is it so hopeless, Nikolasha?

  Nikolasha : Well, Nicky, let me put it this way. Here's a bullet, a bullet made in St. Petersburg. I send it off to war. How does it get there? On a single spur of track four thousand miles long. In the middle, no track at all. Oh, God help it; it spends three days packed on sleds. And every boot, shell or pound of tea we send. Get out now, Nicky, while there's time.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The Russia my father gave me never lost a war. What shall I say to my son when the time comes? That I had no pride, that I was weak? I've always thought God meant me to rule. He put me here. He chose me. And whatever happens is His will. We shall fight on to victory.

  Count Witte : There will be no victory. Only strikes and riots. You must give your people a little of what they want, sir. Not all. Just a taste.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

• Count Witte : If Russia mobilizes, there will be a war.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The Austrians are shelling Belgrade. We must be ready to defend ourselves. I'm ordering prayers for peace to be said in all the churches. But, now if you'll excuse me, I must see my ministers for armaments and recruitment.

  Count Witte : It is in our hands, not God's. He gave us minds to reason. We can talk sanity to lunatics. We can calm mad dogs. God help us if we have to start praying! We can pray when we bury the dead!

• Tsar Nicholas II : Order the mobilization.

  Count Witte : Madness. Madness.