"I made some cuts myself. In the first version the film was 3 hours 20 minutes long. In the second — 3 hours 15 minutes. I shortened the final version to 3 hours 6 minutes. I am convinced the latest version is the best, the most successful."

It's the pre-cut original version shown to the CCCP we'll never see. Had they approved it first pass we would have had a wildly different movie.