Doctor Zhivago

Several years later, in 1905, Russia is at war with Japan and overcome by massive civil unrest which threatens to escalate into all-out revolution. Amidst the chaos the widowed Madame Guichard moves to Moscow with her children, Lara and Rodion. Madame Guichard buys a dressmaker’s shop but remains dependent on her husband’s lawyer, Viktor Ippolitovich Komarovsky, for financial advice and emotional support. Though Komarovsky and Madame Guichard have an ongoing, torrid relationship, Komarovsky can barely disguise his interest in Lara. The dressmaker’s shop, meanwhile, is largely run by its competent staff. One of the apprentices, Olya Demina, takes Lara under her wing. The workers resent Komarovsky’s presence but are unable to prevent a secret affair from beginning between Lara and Komarovsky. Lara, only 16, is overwhelmed by the excitement of romance and the disturbing nature of Komarovsky’s power over her.

In the fall of 1905 railroad workers in Moscow decide to strike. The workers on the Brest railroad, near the Guichards’ home and business, wait out a final payment of wages before joining the general strike. Railroad foreman Pavel Ferapontovich Antipov, advocating for repairs and improvements, is ignored by corrupt managers. He and Tiverzin, an engineer, make the rounds to ensure everyone has been paid before the strike begins. Suddenly other workers call him over to the workshop, where the engine master Khudoleev is viciously abusing his apprentice Yusupka Gimazetdin. Yusupka’s father works in Tiverzin’s building and the engineer intervenes on his behalf, but the other workers break up their fight before it escalates. Tiverzin storms out just as the general walkout—and strike—begins.

Tiverzin returns home two days later to learn that he is a wanted man and that Antipov has been arrested. The Tiverzins adopt Antipov’s son, Patulya, a quiet and intelligent boy. Patulya attends a mass demonstration with Tiverzin’s mother, Marfa Gavrilovna, but they only narrowly escape when the protest is violently put down by Cossacks. Nikolai Nikolaevich watches the same demonstration from his window, recognizing Dudorov in the crowd. Nikolai Nikolaevich has moved in with his relatives the Sventitskys, eagerly diving into the revolutionary atmosphere in Moscow. Yuri now lives with the Gromekos, a happy and well-adjusted family with a daughter the same age, Tonya, and has become good friends with his classmate Misha Gordon.

The lawyer Komarovsky lives a luxurious bachelor’s life with his bulldog and spinster housekeeper in the Petrovsky Lines. Lara, meanwhile, is consumed by guilt over her Komarovsky’s budding romance, and she fears what her mother would do if she were to learn of it. Komarovsky is less concerned by what Madame Guichard might think, but he is surprised at how obsessed he is with Lara. In a fit of rage over the loss of self-control he experiences because of Lara, he kicks his dog down the stairs and urges himself not to let their affair upset his carefully cultivated habits. Lara cannot quite grasp her own feelings towards Komarovsky. While she feels some revulsion toward him, she also feels gratification from the older man’s advances. The only thing that’s clear to her is that she sees no way of breaking free.

Lara’s romance is soon overshadowed by the escalating revolution. Revolutionaries seize and barricade her neighborhood. Two boys Lara knows, Nika Dudorov and Patulya Antipov, join the revolutionaries’ ranks.  Convinced that the army is about to attack to push the revolutionaries out, Lara and her family flee to a nearby neighborhood; their dressmaking shop is already on strike. Falling asleep to the distant sound of gunfire, Lara prays for the revolutionaries.

Meanwhile, Yuri’s life at the Gromekos is much more comfortable. His adoptive father, Alexander Alexandrovich, is a professor married to Anna Ivanovna, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist from the Urals. Nikolai Nikolaevich has been exiled, but Yuri is kept entertained by the Gromekos’ love of culture; Anna Ivanovna and her best friend, Shura Schlesinger, host classical concerts and literary salons.

One night, the Gromekos’ maid interrupts one of these performances to say that one of the guests, a doctor, is urgently needed at a nearby hotel. Alexander Alexandrovich, Misha Gordon, and Yuri accompany the doctor. At the hotel they find that Madame Guichard has attempted suicide, much to the frustration of the staff. Yuri, struggling to understand what happened, is struck by brief glimpses of the imposing Komarovsky and the forlorn-looking Lara. As they leave, Misha explains to him that it was none other than Komarovsky who encouraged Yuri’s father to drink himself to death, but Yuri is too mesmerized by the sad, beautiful image of Lara to grasp what his friend is telling him.