4 ms·

IMHO the best view of Stalin and Stalinism, and certainly the funniest if your taste is for black humor is the film "The Death Of Stalin" - https://en.wikipedia

IMHO the best view of Stalin and Stalinism, and certainly the funniest if your taste is for black humor is the film "The Death Of Stalin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin often available on streaming services. A new version with s/Stalin/Putin/ would be good, and perhaps given oligarchs etc. even funnier.

er4hn 5y ago
Yes! The Death of Stalin is a wonderful movie. I'm eagerly awaiting the take on this for the Trump years. Can you imagine having actor comedians play Spicer, Scaramucci, a constantly exasperated Gen. Mattis, etc, etc?
silveira 5y ago
Not sure about how much historically accurate the movie is (my guess is not very much) but is one of the best comedies out there, specially if you like history. I also read the original comic book source material.
andrepd 5y ago
It's a nice black comedy but of course, completely historically inaccurate.
- shadowofneptune 5y ago
  if people are interested in the changes made: • Vasily Stalin was not a hopeless drunk until after the death of his father. • The Stalin children were not expelled from the country after the execution of Beria. • Molotov was described as a hardass, not the laughing grandfather figure we see in the movie. It was Molotov who demanded the release of his wife. • The person Svetlana Stalin asked to be released [cannot find at the moment] did not die, and was in fact was released later. In general, many of the characters are changed to make Khrushchev look like a more natural successor than any of the other figures.
  - zabzonk 5y ago
    Re Vassily - from wikipedia: She noted that he started to drink alcohol at the age of 13, and in drunken episodes would curse and attack her.[9] Molotov certainly was a hardass - hence the cocktail. But he was also very loyal to Stalin, hence his comedic (and tragic) use in the film.
    - stevoski 5y ago
      > Molotov certainly was a hardass - hence the cocktail. The Molotov cocktail was named ironically after Molotov by Finns. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail The name "Molotov cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War, called Molotovin koktaili in Finnish. The name was a pejorative reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was one of the architects of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in late August 1939. The name's origin came from the propaganda Molotov produced during the Winter War, mainly his declaration on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbours. As a result, the Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets" in reference to Molotov's propaganda broadcasts.[3] When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack and destroy Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with his food parcels".
pizza 5y ago
If you liked that, watch The Thick of It, also by Iannucci, a dark comedy (tv series) about modern British government. Both funny and ugly.. the character Malcolm Tucker still strikes fear into my heart.
- unmole 5y ago
  Also the spin-off movie In the Loop.
publicola1990 5y ago
Simply not true. It is an exaggerated Western stereotypical view of it. Stephen Kotkins book offer a much more informed view of him and his inner circle.
- zabzonk 5y ago
  - romanhn 5y ago
    An odd assertion, since that user does in fact have plenty of technical comments.
    - zabzonk 5y ago
      Went through five pages and didn't see any. Also anyone that uses phrases like "Western stereotypical view" in the current situation is possibly not all there, unless they explicitly support mass murderes.
      - hef19898 5y ago
        Don't we have something in the HN rules saying about always assuming the best when in doubt about comments? E.g. I'm not Russian, nor do I support murder, the war Ukraine or excuse any war crimes. And regardless here I am constantly complaining about a "stereotypical Western worldview". Why? Because I grew up during the Cold War, which means a lot of history, especially about WW2 and Communism, was, as it turned out, clouded by Cold War and anti-Communist propaganda. Context matters, history isn't happening in a vacuum. Trying to get as neutral a view is good thing.
      - elcamino44 5y ago
        If you went through five pages and didn’t see any, that’s on you. I just quickly flicked through and saw some about Rust, GDScript and C++.
- tgv 5y ago
pmoriarty 5y ago
Also see Burnt by the Sun. Excellent movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun

er4hn 5y ago

Yes! The Death of Stalin is a wonderful movie. I'm eagerly awaiting the take on this for the Trump years. Can you imagine having actor comedians play Spicer, Scaramucci, a constantly exasperated Gen. Mattis, etc, etc?

silveira 5y ago

Not sure about how much historically accurate the movie is (my guess is not very much) but is one of the best comedies out there, specially if you like history. I also read the original comic book source material.

andrepd 5y ago

It's a nice black comedy but of course, completely historically inaccurate.

shadowofneptune 5y ago
if people are interested in the changes made: • Vasily Stalin was not a hopeless drunk until after the death of his father. • The Stalin children were not expelled from the country after the execution of Beria. • Molotov was described as a hardass, not the laughing grandfather figure we see in the movie. It was Molotov who demanded the release of his wife. • The person Svetlana Stalin asked to be released [cannot find at the moment] did not die, and was in fact was released later. In general, many of the characters are changed to make Khrushchev look like a more natural successor than any of the other figures.
- zabzonk 5y ago
  Re Vassily - from wikipedia: She noted that he started to drink alcohol at the age of 13, and in drunken episodes would curse and attack her.[9] Molotov certainly was a hardass - hence the cocktail. But he was also very loyal to Stalin, hence his comedic (and tragic) use in the film.
  - stevoski 5y ago
    > Molotov certainly was a hardass - hence the cocktail. The Molotov cocktail was named ironically after Molotov by Finns. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_cocktail The name "Molotov cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War, called Molotovin koktaili in Finnish. The name was a pejorative reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was one of the architects of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in late August 1939. The name's origin came from the propaganda Molotov produced during the Winter War, mainly his declaration on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbours. As a result, the Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets" in reference to Molotov's propaganda broadcasts.[3] When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack and destroy Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with his food parcels".

pizza 5y ago

If you liked that, watch The Thick of It, also by Iannucci, a dark comedy (tv series) about modern British government. Both funny and ugly.. the character Malcolm Tucker still strikes fear into my heart.

unmole 5y ago
Also the spin-off movie In the Loop.

publicola1990 5y ago

Simply not true. It is an exaggerated Western stereotypical view of it. Stephen Kotkins book offer a much more informed view of him and his inner circle.

zabzonk 5y ago
- romanhn 5y ago
  An odd assertion, since that user does in fact have plenty of technical comments.
  - zabzonk 5y ago
    Went through five pages and didn't see any. Also anyone that uses phrases like "Western stereotypical view" in the current situation is possibly not all there, unless they explicitly support mass murderes.
    - hef19898 5y ago
      Don't we have something in the HN rules saying about always assuming the best when in doubt about comments? E.g. I'm not Russian, nor do I support murder, the war Ukraine or excuse any war crimes. And regardless here I am constantly complaining about a "stereotypical Western worldview". Why? Because I grew up during the Cold War, which means a lot of history, especially about WW2 and Communism, was, as it turned out, clouded by Cold War and anti-Communist propaganda. Context matters, history isn't happening in a vacuum. Trying to get as neutral a view is good thing.
    - elcamino44 5y ago
      If you went through five pages and didn’t see any, that’s on you. I just quickly flicked through and saw some about Rust, GDScript and C++.
tgv 5y ago

pmoriarty 5y ago

Also see Burnt by the Sun. Excellent movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun