Summer, 1945. During the Europe Day victory celebration, on Red Square in Moscow, in front of the Kremlin Palace and the Soviet leaders, the famous Russian army celebrated their victory over Nazi Germany. Just as it's done in the Roman Empire, Soldiers threw flags of the vanquished at the feet of the winner.
The man who beat Adolf Hitler, Generalissimo Joseph Stalin. After 20 years of power, the master of the USSR is at the height of his glory. A poet wrote this: “Stalin, you are higher than the high celestial spaces” “and only your thoughts are greater than you.
” “Your spirit Stalin, is brighter than the Sun. ” We call him the small father of the People. All over the world, he stands for hope of a fairer society.
He is the idol of hundreds of millions of people. In France, we also sing his praises. With our whole hearts, we proclaim our ardent love for Stalin and we assure him of our unwavering confidence.
Stalin! Stalin! Meanwhile, this man is one of the greatest criminals in history.
He slaughtered his own people with unlimited brutality. “We will annihilate without mercy anyone who threatens with facts” “or even through thought, the unity of the State. ” He put in place the Gulag and enslaved 18 million people.
“You have to cut off destructive party members” “to preserve it of disease and infection. ” He cynically caused famines which made seven million deaths. “Death solves all issues.
” “No people, no problems. ” He sacrificed his family to his own power. “A true Bolshevik shouldn't have a family.
” We are going to tell you about the incredible story of this son of a small craftsman, who became one of the most powerful personalities on the planet. We are going to tell you how this man, who said he brings joy to his people became, by dint of megalomania and fanaticism, one of the most deadliest dictators that mankind has known. The year 1924, is when it all started.
We are in the vicinity of Moscow, in the middle of the Russian winter. Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik Revolution just died. It's one of the first movies where Stalin has the starring role.
He is carrying the chef's coffin alongside soviet officials. Stalin is 46 years old. He is secretary-general of the Communist Party, a relatively erased post.
Among his comrades, nobody can imagine that he will be the one to succeed the great Lenin. They don't know that ten years from now, He will have almost all of them arrested and executed. Among them, nobody knows yet who really is Joseph Stalin.
To his comrades, he is an insignificant character. One of them said, “Stalin is the most outstanding mediocrity of our party. ” Another confirmed: “We are not afraid of Stalin.
” “As soon as he will want to get on his high horse, we will eliminate him. ” For long now, Stalin has been hiding his real intentions. His real name is Iosif Djugashvili.
He was born in 1878, in the time of the tsars. A monarchical regime based on inequality and submission to the monarchs. With a childhood spent in poverty, an alcoholic and abusive father, he grew up with Orthodox monks.
Very early, he joined the fight against the tsar and took the name Stalin, the man of steel. In 1917, He participated in the Great Bolshevik Revolution with Lenin which overthrew the tsar, abolished privileges, and gave power to the people. In the shadow of Lenin, he was just waiting for an opportunity to take power.
The death of Lenin was that opportunity. In 1924, he succeeded, through maneuvers within the party, to rule out the greatest character of the moment, Trotsky, before exiling him to Kazakhstan. Nobody saw it coming, but just a few weeks later, Stalin took over power.
He won't leave it anymore. He chose to settle here, in the Kremlin citadel, the former palace of the tsars. It's from there that he will lead the USSR, The Union of Republics Soviet socialists, the largest country of the planet.
With a few people who will follow him blindly for about 30 years. He wanted to go further, much further than Lenin. He wanted to rewrite history and his determination was absolute.
“We Bolsheviks, we are a special breed. ” “The others have no value, they are not worth a dime. ” “Do not doubt it, comrades.
” “To the working class, I am ready to devote” “all my strength and every drop of my blood. ” Stalin wanted a clean slate of the past. He abruptly wiped out the traces of old Russia that the revolution had spared.
He passed a decree saying religion is against the interests of the people. Across the country, he removed the old Orthodox icons, before destroying them. In place of the old order, he had a radical project which was to build communism.
An ideal, a happy and healthy society. Without any rich nor poor. A world where everything is shared, where everyone has equal chances at birth, Where health and education are accessible to all.
For the Soviet Union, he has unlimited ambition. “Old Russia has always been defeated because of its delay. ” “Slowing down the pace means to lag behind.
” “and the stragglers will be defeated. ” “We, in the Soviet Union,” “we don't want to be defeated anymore! ” He launched gigantic construction sites.
Skyscrapers, subways, railways, dams, power plants. He wanted to modernize Russia in full swing For her to become a paradise for workers. A world where unemployment does not exist.
and where each worker can offer a decent life to his family. A world where Stalin occupies the first position. We, the pioneers of the great country, party soldiers, always ready!
We thank you Stalin for happiness that you are providing to our country. Stalin is the leader of the Communists. His portrait is everywhere.
In factories, on trains, in every classroom, and even in the dining rooms. He must be perfect because he reflects the success of communism. He personally corrected his official biography, with millions of copies sold.
On the copies, he added a handwritten note: “Add the sentence:” “Stalin is the greatest captain of all times and people. ” Actually, the real Stalin is more common. He is only 5'3 feet.
He is putting on his wedge heel shoes. He often stands on a small wooden plate that makes him look taller. Look at this exceptional image.
It's his real face. His skin is pocky because he had smallpox at the age of seven but strange enough, in public, he had pristine skin. The new master of the Kremlin is a mystery to his people.
He spends his time locked up in his office and he hides jealously his private life. Here are the only photos left of his wife, Nadezhda, She was a former wrestling comrade, 22 years his junior. He had two children with Nadejda, Vasili and Svetlana He devoted little time to them, but on his little girl, he demonstrated a real fascination.
“I miss you, dad. ” “I don't care if the whole world hates me. ” “If dad asks me to go to the moon, I will.
” A few photos show us Stalin in his moments of relaxation. During summer vacation, When he takes his deputies on the Black Sea in party villas. Ekaterina Voroshilov, the wife of one of his lieutenants, remembers that “Stalin loved nature expeditions.
” “He would drive us there and we would sit next to a river. ” “We would light a fire,” “grill meat while joking and singing. ” “It really was the good times.
” The problem is, for Stalin, from the early years, the bad news are piling up. His politics were disappointing. By multiplying major industrial projects, stalin sacrificed his daily life.
The Russian population was growing, yet no housing facilities were made available. Families had to move in together in requisitioned apartments and occupied all the small spaces. The standard of living was deteriorating.
As proof, these clandestinely shot footage on the streets of Moscow. are one of the rare proofs of poverty in the early 1930s. It's this rich English woman, Lady Mountbatten, who during a trip, recorded with her personal camera.
“Everywhere I see signs of malnutrition. ” “I was told that this man who rummags in the trash cans” “was a former aristocrat. ” “And that this one was a famous teacher during the time of the tsars.
” “Here is a little boy who was all alone” “and who asked me for help. ” “Store windows are almost empty. ” “Above all, the queues are endless.
” “In the queue, some are left waiting all day,” “unable to buy anything. ” In the USSR, the communist dream is already falling down but in the Kremlin, Stalin doesn't want to hear anything. For him, there is no such thing as failure.
the system was faulty because their policy was being sabotaged. He was looking for culprits among economic officials. Just like the financial desk,, Bryukhanov, that he considers incompetent, and who a collaborator drew in an awkward position.
At the margin, Stalin wrote; “For all his sins past and present,” “hang Briukhanov from the testicles. ” “If they hold up,” “consider it acquitted by the court. ” “If they give up, throw them in the river.
” Stalin was only half joking. In 1930, He invented a method to officially point out the culprits. The political trial.
The defendants were scientists, engineers, senior officials. They were all competent, but Stalin accused them of sabotaging the Soviet economy. Get up!
Stalin himself is absent from the debates, but he appointed as judge one of his followers, Andrei Vyshinsky. He told him the sentences to be pronounced, death. I declare the session of the special court of the Government of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics open.
For the trial to appear credible in the eyes of the public, It was necessary that the defendants admit their fault. They were tortured for weeks and didn't really have a choice. How do I say this, I have already explained this in my last statement that my counterrevolutionary feelings with regard to Soviet power had never really left me.
I completely acknowledge this I acknowledge that. . .
I deserve the worst punishment. For the prosecutor, it's now a piece of cake. The government convicts you and request that the defendants be shot.
After several days of deliberations, the judge pronounced the verdict. He knew that Stalin was wtching his performance, hence a certain feeling. Kalininkov Ivan Andreyevich, according to articles 583, 584, 586 and 5811 of the USSR Code, The Soviet Union gives you the highest sentence.
Beeing shot with the confiscation of all your assets. Their sentence will be commuted to ten years in prison. But the message is clear, Those who oppose Stalin will be brutally crushed.
as well as their loved ones too, Stalin is becoming brutal. His relationship with his eldest son Yakov, born of a first union, turned cold. He recently attempted to committ suicide.
His father showed no compassion. “he couldn't even shoot on target. ” “I can't have something in common with him.
” Stalin's relationship too was not doing well. His wife, Nadezhda, is fragile. She was constantly rebuked by her husband.
During a dispute where Stalin insulted her, She got carried away. “You are an executioner. ” “That's what you are.
” “You're tormenting your own son, your wife, the Russian people. ” “It's impossible to live with you. ” After 14 years together, Nadejda no longer has strength.
One winter evening, after another quarrel during an official reception in the Kremlin, Nadezhda returned to her room and commited suicide with a revolver bullet in the heart. The truth will remain hidden for 60 years. Russians were told that Nadezhda died from appendicitis.
Because, according to communist leaders, suicide is considered as treason. Even her friend Paolina Molotov condemned it. “Nadezhda was wrong.
” “She left Stalin at such a difficult period. ” Stalin did not stay at the funeral, he was devastated. “Oh Nadezhda,” “Nadezhda, when needed of you, your children and I.
” “She abandoned me like an enemy. ” “She made me a cripple. ” “She ruined my life!
” In the USSR, Nothing will bethe same again. Stalin was brutal, from now on he will be merciless. His first targets were peasants who refused to give their land to the state and join the kolkhozes, these huge cooperatives where everything is shared, under party control.
To harm them, Stalin sent police officers to crisscross the countryside and requisition the crops. Their mission is to asphyxiate families who resist his policies. Tortures, r****, assassinations.
Nothing could stop them. One of these policemen is Lev Kopelev. “I took part in these expeditions.
” “Probing the ground to discover the hideouts. ” “I emptied the pantries, while forcing myself not to hear. ” “the children's tears and the moans from women.
” “Anything was allowed. ” “Destruction,” “lies,” “theft. ” “The end justified the means.
” “Our aim was the universal triumph of communism. ” 1933, the year of the result. Stalin's requisitions caused a tragedy in Ukraine.
One of the richest regions in Europe, was already been ravaged by the famine in the 1920s, under Lenin. But this time, the slaughter took unimaginable heights. The peasants no longer had something to eat.
A father wrote to his son in Moscow. “My dear son,” “I am writing to you to tell you that your mother is dead. ” “She died of starvation after months of suffering.
” “I don't have much time left myself. ” Some members of the party on site did not understand that this famine is known and even wanted by Stalin. They protested.
“Is comrade Stalin,” "a member of the Politburo. ” "Is he aware of what's going on in Ukraine? ” “Otherwise, let me hint you.
” “A train full of corpses just arrived in Kiev. ” “After picking up bodies along the way. ” In Moscow, Stalin wanted to eliminate the Ukrainians who were still resisting his policies.
He prohibited hungry peasants from leaving their villages to get to the big cities. In good conscience, he condemned to death five million people, half of whom were children. It's one of the greatest massacres of the century.
At the same time, the French deputy Édouard Herriot arrived in Ukraine invited by the Soviet government. I make ardent wishes for the prosperity of the Russian people and I hope that my trip will be useful for their happiness and the people's peace. The French man and the delegation who accompanied him visited Ukraine by train.
He is pleased with the trip. “I crossed Ukraine. ” “I can assure you that I saw it like a garden in full yield.
” “There are only Kolkhoz gardens, irrigated and admirable crops. ” “While it is said that Ukraine is being ravaged by famine,” “Allow me to shrug my shoulders. ” How could the Frenchman miss out on millions of deaths?
In fact, the streets were cleaned prior to his arrival. The workers that he met were extras. We brought in food.
Édouard Herriot was fooled by propaganda. In Moscow, Stalin's rule is full of lies. He gave a mission to journalists and filmmakers.
They don't have to describe the world as it is, but as it should be. The harvest is bad, We have radiant peasants filmed in magnificent fields. Industrial results are disappointing, We publish victorious press releases with fake numbers.
We invent heroes like this famous miner, Alexei Stakhanov. During a competition, he broke down the productivity record by extracting 14 times more of coal than others. This story is completely false.
It was made up by the party, but it helped abuse the Soviets. Truely, the USSR is no longer just a gigantic police state. Stalin's agents are everywhere.
They control the whole company. They received a terrifying order. They won't just to arrest the suspects, but also deport them.
Everywhere, thousands of men, women and children are grouped and taken to unknown destinations. A child remembers. “How long did the trip last?
” “I have no idea. ” “In the wagon, seven people died of starvation. ” “When we are arrived in Tomsk,” “they took us out and unloaded the corpses.
” “Children, youths” “and old people. ” They headed to the gulag, Soviet labor camps. They were real concentration camps, set up by Stalin, long before their appearance in Germany.
These were all enemies of the revolution, at least from an officiall point of view. Actually, ordinary citizens, notable people, religious people who have nothing to be blamed for but don't fit with the functioning of the regime. They are mixed with common law prisoners.
In the party, We calles that re-education through labor and we are proud of it. Here, the deviant spirits must be put back on track. In fact, these prisoners are turned into slaves.
In the camps of the Far North, the temperature sometimes falls down to minus 50 degrees. A prisoner wrote: “It's dangerous to stop moving. ” “I can't stop kneading my toes and clenching my fists.
” “The act of touching a metal tool with bare hands” “may rip your skin off. ” Maria Iov can't take it anymore. She's a political prisoner.
“Our team is composed of intellectuals,” “but among these scarecrows, who will recognize violinists,” “harpists, scientists? ” “We are in a constant state of daze and stupefaction. ” On August 2, 1933, an event showed the cruelty and absurdity of the system.
On that day, the Stalin Canal was being inaugurated. Two hundred kilometers of waterways that connect from the White to the Baltic Sea. With just pickaxes, 300,000 prisoners dug this canal.
Exceptionally, Stalin chose to move. He wanted to make the canal that would bear his name, the symbol of his success. Theoretically, It was a technical feat.
The construction deadline of the Panama Canal was shortened. Truely, it's a new tragedy. Thirty thousand prisoners, or one out of ten, died during construction.
They died in vain. It seems hard to believe, but to meet up with the time limits set by Stalin, The channel was not dug quite deep. Most boats will never be able to borrow it.
Abroad, we are far from imagining the horror caused by the stalinist system. Most Western media repeat the lies from propaganda to burlesque. Meanwhile the gulag is developing everywhere, Here's how the French news describe a former tsar's prison in Siberia.
Once upon a time, the tsar revolutionaries were locked up there. Today, the Soviet government decided to give another use to this location. Large rabbit breeding will now be done there under the watch of a special scientific institute.
Intoxicated by propaganda, every year, Communist delegations from all over the world and especially from France, came to Moscow to greet the little father of the Peoples. Despite Stalin's crimes, prestigious rallies were fast multiplying, like that of the French writer Louis Aragon, who not only approves the gulag, but publicly sings its praises. “The proletariat will undertake this historic task,” “rehabilitation of man by man.
” “We are at a moment in the history of mankind” “that looks like in the transition from ape to man. ” For the Bolshevik Party and its leader Stalin, hip hip hip! Hooray!
Hip, hip, hip Hooray! How do you explain such dazzlement? At the 1935 Congress in Moscow, Maurice Thorez's speech, the leader of the French Communist Party, explained that Stalin gave back to the workers their pride.
Listen comrades, for a moment, It happened that communist workers didn't know how to respond in factories, didn't know how to defend themselves against such blames or such accusations. There was a time when, because of drying sectarianism, they did not have the means to respond. There was no longer harmony between them and the great mass of workers.
Now they're proud, they're talking, responding, giving their arguments. They are known in factories, they say they are the communists, those are the ones who organized the United Front and the Popular Front. We are sure of victory because the helm of our ship is in the firm hands of the greatest pilot, of our dear and great Stalin.
Blinded by his communist ideal, the Frenchman did not see, or did not want to realize that Stalin had moved on a long time ago. And that his only purpose was now to consolidate his power. Stalin decided to kill the entire generation which was still shading him.
Remember, Lenin's funeral in 1924. Most of those who carried the coffin with Stalin would die. Kamenev and Zinoviev, executed.
Tomski, driven to suicide. Rikov, shot. Radek, murdered.
Stalin finds pleasure in martyrizing loved ones. “Choose your victim, Carefully prepare for the coup. ” “Relentlessly carry out your revenge and then go to bed.
” “There is nothing sweeter than this in the world. ” In 1938, he attacked his closest partner in the fight, his dear Bukharin. He's been a friend for 15 years, but he dared contradict him several times.
In his eyes, he became an enemy. To prepare for the fall of this great figure in the regime, It started the steamroller Propaganda. Across the country, We are of the opinion that these conspiracies were fiercely committed by the agents of capitalism, dogs of fascism none other than Bukharin and his crew.
Comrades, what I have to tell you was confirmed by Stalin. Our country is surrounded by enemies Who want to destroy our country and our people. Death to these enemies, Death to these parasites!
During this time at Lubyanka, the headquarters of the secret police, Bukharin is being tortured. In a letter, he implores his old friend Stalin. “I am writing you this letter, which is probably the last.
” “My heart bleeds at the thought that You may think that I am guilty. ” “I am ready to drag myself on my knees and implore you to drop this trial for me. ” “If death awaits me,” “I beg you, in the name of everything you care about,” “not to allow me to get shot.
” “I would like to take poison. ” “I beg you. ” It is indeed death that awaits Bukharin.
On March 2, 1938, In a room full of members of the political police, his trial begun. It's mere formality. Our people want one thing.
We need to crush these pests! Bukharin is in the defendants box, But there is nothing left, no image of him. He was not considered docile enough to be used for propaganda.
He will be shot and his family deported. The purges are now expanding to all families in the Soviet Union, without distinction. Stalin saw enemies everywhere.
He became totally paranoid. To those he suspects are threatening his power, he encouraged whistleblowing. In each village, you had to be ready to denounce your neighbor and even your own parents.
A young boy denounced “As a pioneer, I have to tell you that. ” “My father acted in a counter-revolutionary way. ” “And I'm asking you not as a son, but as a pioneer,” “to be hard on my father's responsibility.
” Stalin had a henchman, Nikolai Yezhov, Nicknamed dwarf because he was only 5'05 feet tall. He was the boss of the secret police. “I might be short but my hands are strong.
” “These are Stalin's hands. ” “We are launching an attack on a large scale against the enemy. ” “There will be innocent victims.
” “When you clear a forest, chips fly off. ” Stalin had set execution quotas. As proof, this terrible document.
On the first line the name of the republic of the USSR Here is Azerbaijan. followd by three columns of figures. One for executions, one for deportations and one last for the total.
There are no names. It's up to party officials to find the victims to fill up the quotas. A random file in the archives of the political police.
Name: Cilorov. Heritage: a wooden house eight square meters, a cow, four sheep, two pigs. Indictment: Cilorov is malicious against Soviet power.
He said Stalin killed a lot of people, but we can't talk about it, otherwise you'll be put in a camp for 25 years. Verdict: Shoot Cilorov and confiscate all his property. He's called the Great Terror.
Since the year 1937, Yezhov gets shot an average of 1000 people per day. “Strike, exterminate without sorting. ” “It's better to go too far than not far enough.
” In the midst of terror, Yet, life continued as if nothing had happened. At the Bolshoi Theater, they're playing Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. It's Stalin's favorite ballet.
He never missed a performance. Each evening after the concert, He returned to the Kremlin to sign the execution orders that were prepared for him. Sometimes he added feedback.
“Tighten the screw on this gentleman, beat him again and again. ” “The more the teeth are tightened the better it is. " The Terror finally turned against the police chief himself.
Yezhov is accused of treason, he is tortured, executed and even erased from official photos. In 1938, Stalin had eliminated all his enemies, be it real or imaginary. He gradually replaced them with a new generation of activists who owe him everything.
They're the nomenklatura, the new people, that which Stalin dreamed of and that whom he can count on. They split up the property of the Terror's victims and they took advantage of apartments vacated. On 17 March 1938, four days after the end of the Bukharin trial, Many families went to Moscow airfield.
Be it activists, officials, They were all present to welcome a Russian plane which connected Russia to America passing through the North Pole. The welcome of the pilot Tchkalov, here at the center, is an event. Stalin decided to make him a new Soviet hero.
On that day, on the streets of Moscow, Chkalov proclaimed his love to the supreme leader. “I am ready to die for Stalin. ” “If we have to give him our lungs, we will give our lungs to Stalin.
” “And if we have to give him our heart,” “we will give him our heart. ” Stalin is far from imagining that a threat from the West will soon threaten his regime. In Germany, the Nazi Party has been in power for over five years now.
He advocates superiority of the Germanic race. As leader, Chancellor Adolf Hitler just like Stalin, has established a dictatorial regime. He had already annexed Austria.
He wanted to seize all of its neighboring countries, including France. But most of all he dreamt of attacking the Soviet Union and to annex its territory for the benefit of the German people. “The mission of the Nazi movement is to destroy Judeo-Bolshevism.
” “Destroying Russia will give the German people” “a vital space the masters need to eat. ” “My ambition is to be the man who will break Marxism. ” Stalin finally realized the threat, but too late.
THE USSR was not ready for a conflict. Its weapons were outdated. Its staff was decimated.
During the Terror, he had shots fired 20,000 Soviet officers, members of the general Staff who were around him during this 1934 movie, There are only a few outdated generals left who don't understand anything about modern warfare. just like the dashing Boudionny. “You won't change my mind.
” “As soon as the war breaks out, everyone will shout:” “Changet the cavalry! ” To make up for the delay, Stalin needs some time. In August 1939, he managed to get along at the last minute with Ribbentrop, Hitler's ambassador to Moscow, the two giants sign a non-aggression agreement Just a few days before triggering the World War.
An unnatural agreement, which has a lot of ulterior motives, but which gives Stalin a break. “It's all just a game about who gets the other one up their sleeve. ” “You'll see, Russia will succeed to avoid war with Germany” “for a while longer.
” A week later, September 1, 1939, The German Army attacked Poland. It's the start of the Second World War. In a few weeks, the Nazis crushed the Polish army and won a resounding victory.
The first out of many. Eight months later, in May 1940, Hitler attacked from the West and occupied France in less than two months. He enforced his law in the half of Europe, military occupation, racial persecutions and political repression.
In the meantime, Stalin did not remain inactive. In favor of the pact signed with Hitler, He conquered new territories. In the winter of 1941, he still thinks he's safe from a conflict with Germany but this time he is wrong.
It's at that moment that Hitler decided to make realize his old dream. Destroy the Soviet Union. It's the Barbarossa plan.
One of the biggest military operations in history. Hitler planned to overwhelm the Soviet army and to reach Moscow in just a few weeks. As early as spring, The German army sets ready for battle at the border.
On site, Soviet generals observed troop movements. They sounded the alarm and asked for permissio to deploy soldiers. But in the Kremlin, Stalin, just as paranoid as ever, dread a trap.
He answers them. “You have a big head, but a small brain! ” “Germany will never stand alone in the war against Russia.
” June 16 1941, a spy sent a message saying an attack was imminent. But Stalin persisted “He's a disinformer, he should go to hell. ” June 21st, the eve of the major russian offensive, A German deserter passed the border and said that the attack would be launched at dawn.
Stalin's verdict was, “Shoot him. ” June 22, 1941, the invasion started. Three million German soldiers attacked the U.
S. S. R.
From the first hours, they destroyed a thousand planes on the ground. The steamroller German entered the battle. A woman was trapped in a village.
“Thousands of our soldiers are wandering aimlessly. ” “all scattered around. ” “Our leaders are leaving.
” “They are leaving us to die. ” Symbol of defeat, Stalin's eldest son, Yakov, was captured as a prisoner while on the run disguised as a peasant. At the back, Russia is in shock.
In order to understand, the population is running to get the newspapers. Everyone is waiting for Stalin's reaction, but its not coming. Muscovites, like young Guéna, want to know more.
“We're glued to the radio. ” “We are waiting for Stalin's speech. ” “We need to hear his voice.
” “But he is silent. ” “It's Molotov, his deputy, who is talking. ” “Everyone is listening.
” “We are told that we're in the middle of war. ” “But where is Stalin? ” Stalin is entrenched behind the walls of the Kremlin.
It is annihilated. “All is lost. ” “Lenin founded our state and we ruined everything.
” “He left us a fantastic legacy” “and we ruined it. ” Because of his repeated mistakes, Stalin is personally responsible for the disaster. But he doesn't want to admit it.
As usual, he is looking for culprits. These thousands of soldiers surrendering are considered traitors. Their families will be deported.
As far as deserters are concerned, he sent to the front special units responsible for watching soldiers and he gave them explicit orders. 'In case of panic and retraction," “have them shot on the spot including those who will panick and the cowards. ” In just a few weeks, Stalin jumped from one bad decision to the other.
In Ukraine, he prohibited his generals from evacuating the city of Kiev. Five days later, nazis captured 500,000 soldiers. It was the biggest catch ever done by an army.
In October 1941, Four months after the start of the Barbarossa Offensive, Hitler almost won his bet. The German Army was a few miles from Moscow. The capital is bombed every day.
The population took refuge in the subway. Writer Viktor Kravchenko noted this in his journal: “Moscow gives you the feeling that you're dying. ” “Panic reigns” “and it enables the most incredible sounds to circulate.
” “Some said that a coup had occured in the Kremlin” “and that Stalin was arrested. ” Actually, stalin also took refuge in the subway. Here it is, while all his followers urged him to evacuate the capital, and take a decision that would change everything.
Inspite of the danger, he decided to remain in Moscow. In a few hours, he will address his soldiers. November 7, eight in the morning.
Regiments joined the Red Square in the middle of a snowstorm following Stalin's call. The tanks came directly from the front well armed. The Germans could attack at any time.
But Stalin's speech galvanized the troops. Male and female supporters, The whole world is watching us and is waiting for us to crush down the hordes of looters and German invaders who died during the German invasion. Glory to our country, to freedom, to independence.
Onward to victory under Lenin's flag. In a few days, the Soviet army managed to stabilize the war in front of Moscow. It's only ten months later, in the summer of 1942, that of the greatest battles of the century will occur.
We are in Stalingrad. It was the turning point of the Second World War. The Germans, who did not succeed to bring down Moscow, wanted to conquer this crossing point towards the oil of the Caspian Sea.
They occupied 90% of the city. But they still had a few hundred miles to win. In front, the Soviets put up a relentless resistance against them.
The Russian gunner Andreï Kozyainov was one of them. “We heard the footsteps and the breath of German soldiers. ” “I can't See them with the smoke.
” “We shoot following our instinct,” “by ear. ” “My head is buzzing. ” A total of two million people will die in Stalingrad.
For the first time since the start of the war, Stalin, wisely, decided not to intervene himself and to let his chief of staff General Zhukov do the work Zhukov had a battle plan. He wanted to trap the Germans they had just conquered in the city. November 19, 1942.
at seven in the morning, 1,400 tanks, over 1,000 planes and a million Soviet soldiers were rushing on the flanks of the Nazi army. These images taken after the battle during a reenactment show two Russian armies come together. A few weeks later, 300,000 German soldiers surrounded, poorly equipped and hungry surrendered with their leader, Marshal von Paulus.
It's the first time that a Nazi marshal is captured alive. To Stalin, it is a miracle. In the eyes of the world, he is the first to defeat Adolf Hitler.
And he will launch over the next two years the heroic counteroffensive Russian soldiers against Germany. Despite his crimes, despite his pact in 1939 with Hitler, stalin became unavoidable. In Moscow, during the visit of General de Gaulle, then a few months later at the Yalta Conference, Allies all came meet the great Stalin.
The Briton Churchill took a toast. “Is there anything more precious than the life of Stalin” “to each and every one of us. ” “I sincerely hope the people of the Soviet Union” “would be able to preserve their marshal for a long time.
” Churchill knew that since the victory in Stalingrad, The USSR was becoming a superpower. He knew that after months of a counteroffensive, The Red Army would soon enter Berlin. We are in the spring of 1945.
These terrifying weapons, Stalin's followers, were bombing the German capital. Stalin decided to avenge Stalingrad and destroy Berlin. In front of such firepower, Germany finished by capitulating on 8 May 1945.
Two months later, Generalissimo Stalin arrived in the German capital to celebrate his victory. In this famous propaganda movie, We welcomed Hitler's conqueror like a messiah. In fact, it's fiction where the role of stalin is played by a lookalike.
This masterful arrival never happened. Stalin was scared of flying. and contrary to these images, he hated crowds.
Comrades, today, we are celebrating the big victory on fascist Germany. The real Stalin took an armored train to Potsdam, in the suburbs of Berlin, where 5,000 police officers were mobilized for his arrival. He was obsessed with the attacks.
If he agreed to leave his country for the first time in 30 years, It's because the opportunity was worth it. He had appointments around the negotiation table with his American and British allies. Since the Yalta Conference, he asked for half of the European territory.
That is all the countries that his army had liberated during the war. Stalin's demand was accepted by the Allies. Soviet rule From Eastern Europe was set tobegin.
It will last nearly half a century. For the Russian people, the price of victory is exorbitant. The conflict has annihilated 70,000 villages and killed 26 million people.
In the summer of 1945, the soldiers were returning to their homes and getting ready to be reunited with their families. A soldier said. “People are screaming,” “they're running.
” “They're crying when the train arrives. ” “The men kiss their wives. ” “They hug the children they didn't see grow up.
” “They proudly show their decorations and their wounds. ” After so much suffering, they all want peace and quiet. For them, the crimes of Stalin are nothing but old memories.
They are wrong. Stalin is at the peak of his power. It's been over 20 years that he's been leading the Soviet Union.
For victory, we prepared a grandiose show for him with thousands of extras. Even the American general Eisenhower came along. However, Stalin seems to be absent.
His health is fragile. He has memory lapses. He had several heart attacks.
Above all, he is a single man. During the war, he lost his son Yakov, who was made prisoner of the Germans. It is said that Yakov sought to escape by crossing barbed wires.
Stalin refused to exchange him against Marshal von Paulus, as Hitler proposed. “If I had traded Yakov,” “What would have said the fathers of the party” “whose children were made prisoners too? ” “If I had done that,” “I wouldn't have been called Stalin.
” His private life was a disaster. He no longer sees his second son, the aviator Vassili, who became an alcoholic and who keeps flying over Red Square on his plane. More paranoid than ever, Stalin even got mad at Svetlana, his darling daughter, who is now a young woman.
He didn't understand her need to have fun. He did not accept her romantic escapades, particularly the one with Jewish director Alekseï Kapler, who he sent to the gulag. He didn't accept either her marriage to Grigory Morozov, a Jewish, too.
Over the years, Hitler's conqueror became antisemitic. “All the previous generation was contaminated by Zionism. ” “And now they want youths to join.
” As soon as the war was over, Stalin relaunched the purges depending on his mood and his craziness. With two million prisoners, including a large number of Jews, the gulag had never been this full. In France, Communists who fought against the Nazis during the war still worship Stalin.
In 1949, he celebrated his 70th birthday. Gifts were sent from everywhere to the Kremlin, so did tremolos, the man behind the voice, the poet Paul Eluard explained. “In this small workshop from Belleville,” “the workers spent 300 hours manufacturing with care” “a gift for Stalin.
” “Their gift was a minute tour. ” Despite the evidence, The horror of the Stalinist system was still silenced. We have not forgotten what we went through during the Nazi occupation.
It is necessary to understand that one of our comrades was interned. Another man's son fell into the clandestine struggle. The wife and the daughter of our director were deported.
Without the victory of Stalingrad, our village Grigny, would have still been occupied by the Nazis. Like all of France and Europe. Therefore, we all, peasants from Grigny, We wish a happy birthday and long life to Generalissimo Stalin who freed us with his victory.
We wish long life to a clear-sighted guide to the working class, to Stalin, the man of peace. For his birthday, the man of peace convened in Moscow the international communist elite especially the Chinese Mao Zedong but a little 12-year-old girl was starring. Her name was Natalia.
She was Poskrebyshev's daughter, Stalin's secretary. She was immensely honored to read a poem to the Supreme Leader. Live close to us dear one, lead us through your lights, for the Soviet regime to flourish and get stronger every day.
The room cheered this touching scene but the little girl wasn't aware of a cruel detail. A few years ago, stalin had her mother shot. At 70, the little Father of Peoples felt more indispensable than ever.
“What would you do without me? ” “You are blind. ” “You are little cats.
” “You don't see the enemy. ” “The country will fall” “because you can't recognize the enemy. ” March 4, 1953.
This time It is Stalin who just died. No details in the newspapers. We won't know until later.
Stalin agonized alone in his room for two days, without anyone to rescue him. Not even his doctors, who were terrified at the thought of taking a bad decision and as a result, getting shot. His body was displayed in the hall of columns, where he had convicted his friends during the Moscow trials.
Among party members, the feelings are real. A teacher had a hard time imagining life without Stalin. “What will happen now?
” “How are we going to live? ” “What will happen to the country? ” On Red Square, officials were reciting their speeches as usual.
Our master and guide, the greatest genius of all mankind, has finished his glorious path. However, despite the mourning instructions away from the cameras, thousands of Stalin's victims had secretly started to cheering up. At the Vorkuta camp, in the far north of Russia, the deportees got down on their knees upon hearing the news.
“May his soul go to hell. ” “Thank God,” “Today, the man with the mustache went to hell. ” During his reign, the man who promised heaven on earth had caused the death of 20 million people.
