"Mature Content Warning!" |
“ | You wanna know where f**king Polnikov is? You wanna go there? | „ |
~ Stalin |
Joseph Stalin is the titular overarching antagonist of the 2017 political satire film The Death of Stalin.
He is the former leader of the Soviet Union, ruling the state with a brutal regime and executing those who are not loyal to him. Despite only appearing in the first few minutes of the film, Stalin's death is what drives the plot, including Lavrentiy Beria taking over the country for his own agenda.
He was portrayed by Adrian McLoughlin.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
Background[]
- He has willingly turned the USSR into an even more oppressive dictatorship, becoming even more totalitarian than his predecessor, hauling off anyone who disagrees with him to labor camps to be executed or tortured. He is well aware of how sadistic the conditions are, yet continues to do so without any concern for the human rights violations involved in doing so. The movie makes it clear that Stalin is the main cause of it.
- Much like his real-life counterpart, he caused the massive famine within the USSR during the late 1920s and early 1930s after starting to industrialize the country and causing millions of deaths in Ukraine, Russia and even Kazahkstan.
- During the Great Purge, he has falesly accused many of his former comrades within the Bolsheviks just to consolidate his power within the Party and killed many more due to his own paranoia. One of the victims was Lazar Kaganovich's brother whose death was mentioned in the film, having a clear effect on Kaganovich.
- Appointed Lavrentiy Beria as the head of his spy network, despite Beria being a sociopath and serial child rapist. It's never confirmed if Stalin is aware that Beria is a pedophile, though it's explicitly mentioned that Stalin approves of Beria torturing and murdering innocents.
- He had his arch political rival and former Bolshevik comrade, Leon Trotsky assasinated in Mexico.
- He ordered the Red Army to invade Poland in late 1939 alongside Nazi Germany sparking World War II and only joining the Allies after the Third Reich attacked the USSR later during the war.
- He had the Soviet Army invade almost all of Eastern Europe, even splitting Germany in half to become Communist satellite states for the USSR during the Cold War, installing various Communist dictatorships throughout the country which mimiced his own totalitarian regime.
- He was heavily implied to be an abusive father to his son. His son was so terrified of him that he had to cover up a plane crash that he caused to avoid Stalin's wrath.
- Whilst it could be argued that he fails the Heinous Standards to Beria, who is a child rapist, sadistic torturer and the main villain; the only reason Beria outshines Stalin is because Stalin dies too early to commit more atrocities, and that most of his deeds are offscreen such as Holodomor, but they are still mentioned heavily.
- It should also can't be understated that the entire state of the Soviet Union, and Beria being able to get away with his crimes to begin with - as in real life - is because he was enabled by Stalin.
The Death of Stalin[]
- Signs death warrants for civilians and his own subordinates, also planning to have Georgy Malenkov murdered for bringing up a man he had executed years ago. What makes this even more sadistic is that Stalin continues to dine with the man, treating his imminent death as a sick joke.
- He has several lists of people to execute in his office, including innocent people like an author that criticized him. He uses this to threaten people into submission.
- He uses his power to threaten people into doing his bidding, such as demanding a concert to be recorded when it's already started. When it takes longer than Stalin wanted, one of the soldiers notes that Stalin will remember this.
- Had the order given to execute all his servants if he was to die. This is a debated validation, but it fits into an action that he would do, as it's never denied that he was responsible for this action.
- When he is sent a letter reminding him of his crimes, he laughs hysterically, ultimately and ironically causing him to have a stroke and die.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- It's implied he loves his daughter, as she seems to care for him deeply and is not shown to have been negatively affected by his abuse, as her less popular brother has.
- His death is played for black comedy, with him having a stroke, childishly swearing as he falls, and wetting himself while relaxing music plays in the background. The scenes afterwards are also played for laughs, where his ministers carry his body to his bed and accidentally crushing Mikoyan and getting his suit wet with Stalin’s urine, him briefly coming back in a dazed state and pointing at a painting while his ministers assume his last moments mean more than they actually do and assuming that he’s picking a successor (With his maid looking genuinely excited when he seemingly points at her) and his ministers watching his skull get removed being noticeably horrified and disgusted, with Bulganin still complementing him even in death much to his fellow minister's dismay.
Trivia[]
- Stalin doted on his daughter, in real life, and whilst he treated his children appallingly, still implicitly cared for them.
- Christmas trees were introduced in the Soviet Union specifically because of his daughter, who liked them.
- In fact, when he heard that Beria was alone with his daughter Svetlana, he telephoned for her to get out of the house immediately and sent a hit-squad to the house with orders to shoot Beria if they suspect that he so much as touched his daughter.
- Whilst Beria did not, this was more because he recognised that molesting Comrade Stalin's morality pet would indeed be a terrible idea.
- In fact, when he heard that Beria was alone with his daughter Svetlana, he telephoned for her to get out of the house immediately and sent a hit-squad to the house with orders to shoot Beria if they suspect that he so much as touched his daughter.
- Christmas trees were introduced in the Soviet Union specifically because of his daughter, who liked them.
- In addition to his children, Stalin was rather fond of his maid, Valentina Istomina, and was rather close to her. This seems to carry in the film, as when Stalin is mindlessly pointing at people after his stroke and his ministers assume he’s picking a successor, Valentina looks genuinely excited as if she believes he would hand over the country to her, and she seems genuinely worried when she finds him on the floor after his stroke.
- Stalin was likely going to purge his inner council in real life, as due to his worsening paranoia and mental illness - suspected to be due to a series of mini-strokes in his frontal lobes - he chased them out whilst drunk at dinner one night, telling them it's all over for them.
- Stalin was very much a bad boss in real life, but was noted to, having signed a person's death warrant, would warmly and genially have drinks with them and laugh with them before they were taken away and tortured, something he watched with glee.
- In fact, he stated "there can be no greater pleasure in life than to choose one's enemy, inflict a terrible revenge on him, and then go quietly to bed".
- Stalin, in real life, was very aware of Beria's rapist tendencies, as were the rest of the inner circle, and was evidently trying to get rid of him evidenced by him having Beria spied upon and demanding that his spies write down everything "that a**hole"" says and does.
- That said, he still kept him due to his excessive cruelty and ruthlessness, as well as that he was not liked or respected. In fact, he even referred to Beria as his "Himmler".