Customer Reviews

I Was Stalin's Bodyguard [VHS]

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I saw this tape in 1988, or was it 1989, in Los Angeles. It was during the period of perstroika, delivered by hand, and was represented as part of Moscow's demonstration of a new willingness to examine issues and create dialogue in the latter days of the Cold War.

The subject of the tape, the bodyguard himself, narrates photo and film archives in a frank and revealing manner, including rare insight into the day to day life of Stalin and various parties in and about the Kremlin.

The directors and managers in Moscow that made and carried out the decision to release this footage in the midst of global tumult should be commended for their brave sense of political innovation.

Unusual insight that offers a provocative point of view.

Get this tape, but don't expect anything startling. The aged ex-bodyguard is careful to speak only about silly stuff: Stalin catching a worker taking a bath in his private bath house, Stalin giving lifts in his limousine to people standing at a bus stop, etc. Occassionally the mask drops, as when the old man refers to managing a string of Moscow informants. Then his eyes turn steely, which fifty years before must have been bone-chilling. The tape ends with him teaching his accordion technique to a gaggle of gradeschool children. Bizarre.