Stalin Speaks on Red Square (1941)
Description: Stalin’s stirring appearance on Red Square for the November 7, 1941 anniversary celebration, when the German troops stood a short distance from Moscow, gave people faith in a seemingly hopeless moment that not only Moscow would withstand the invaders, just as it had withstood and destroyed Napoleon in 1812, but that the Soviet Union would survive as well.
Sergei Eizenshtein: Ivan the Terrible (1943)
Description: Taken to be a model of Russocentric state leadership during the Stalin era, Ivan the Terrible acts forcefully in this scene to foil a plot by the boyars to undermine his rule. Allied with the boyars are the priests, who personify ignorance and superstition, and Ivan’s erstwhile friend Prince Kurbskii, who covets the tsarina, and will soon betray Ivan to the Poles. Ivan’s private soldiers, the oprichina, proves itself his loyal guard in the conflict. Part I of the film trilogy, from which this clip is taken, pleased viewers and leaders alike; Parts II and III, which chronicled Ivan’s decline into tyranny and madness, did not reach Soviet screens.
Molotov Announces the German Attack (1941)
Description: Radio broadcast by Viacheslav Molotov on June 22, 1941, announcing the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR. Sovkinozhurnal, no.59