Talk:The Death of Stalin

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 January 2019 and 24 February 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jessicavandiver, HistoryMike01.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:09, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Satire, review
The film should more properly be termed a satire. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian has reviewed it at the festival.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/sep/09/the-death-of-stalin-review-armando-iannucci-toronto-film-festival-tiff

--TS 16:28, 9 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I agree, and have changed it. &mdash; BillC talk 17:57, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Plot
"... acquiring the services of a conductor intended for abduction by the NKVD..."

I don't recall it as such: my memory was that while the conductor certainly believed that the knock on his door was the NKVD coming for him, and people elsewhere in his apartment block were being arrested at the time, he had not himself been targeted for arrest. Happy to be told that I have mis-remembered it if this is the case. &mdash; BillC talk 17:51, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree. I think the NKVD were arresting his neighbours when he was collected from his flat? And he did seemed to be very worried. So I guessed he thought his time was up. The exact intentions of the NKVD, however, were unclear. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:07, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * That sounds very like how I remember it. I'll give it a short while for someone else to comment, but if there's no more, I'll amend the article accordingly. &mdash; BillC talk 18:11, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * The whole punchline of that scene is that he believes the NKVD is coming for him, when the only reason somebody's knocking on his door is that he's wanted for his skills as a conductor. --2003:EF:13C1:CE24:C9B5:C862:4382:79FE (talk) 18:15, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Azerbaijan
In Azerbaijan ParkCinema shows Death of Stalin from 11 marth 2018. --Sefer azeri (talk) 07:32, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

The NKVD existed in 1934 Samuel Goff is wrong!
The NKVD was founded / created in 1934! Where di Samuel Goff get his facts from? He is so wrong! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.136.128.16 (talk) 07:52, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
 * This is a comedy film that takes large cinematic licence about many things, not a documentary. For example, no Soviet citizen in 1953 would've spoken of the "Red Army", since it had been officially re-christened as the Soviet Army in 1945. --2003:EF:13C1:CE24:C9B5:C862:4382:79FE (talk) 18:17, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
 * He is not wrong, but such nuance is not worth of mentioning as all People's Commissariats renamed to Ministries in 1946, yet in the essence retained the same functions. Aleksandr Grigoryev (talk) 20:12, 5 April 2021 (UTC)
 * NKVD stands out more rather than MVD. It is better associated with the Stalinist Great Purge and GULAG which probably was the intention to bring up a feeling of terror for the film. Aleksandr Grigoryev (talk) 20:20, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Template removal
Did you intend to remove the as-of template from the infobox? Why? Kendall-K1 (talk) 16:28, 15 April 2018 (UTC)


 * because that’s not a thing that goes in the infobox. The accessdate on the BOM gives date it was last updated, and the infobox is just the film at a glance; create an overall figures section in the Reception tab if you want TropicAces (talk) 17:15, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't think there is a prohibition on including it, is there? The movie is still in release and the number changes daily. Otherwise I would agree it doesn't need to be there. Kendall-K1 (talk) 17:31, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

There’s not a “prohibition” per say but I think it’s one of those unwritten rules of Wikipedia, like not listing the “with” or “and” in the cast billing even though posters may include it. Just makes the infobox excessively busy and like I said, if people want to know when the Gross is accurate of they can go to the source. That being said, as a bit of an olive branch here and to add content to the page, I created a Figures template in the Release tab. TropicAces (talk) 20:36, 15 April 2018 (UTC)tropicAces

Historical accuracy
Currently this section only cites criticism of the film’s historical ‘’inaccuracies’’ without actually citing what ‘’is’’ historically accurate. Morganfitzp (talk) 13:13, 23 April 2018 (UTC) Morganfitzp (talk) 13:13, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

Plot (length)
The plot section was far too long at 1481 words. JesseRafe started to tackle this, correctly commenting that it was still too long, but I thought it would be an uphill struggle to start from that point, so I have reverted the section back to its version of 17 October which I think is a better starting point. This has the benefit of having been stable for about 6 months. It's now 665 words long. &mdash; BillC talk 04:07, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Red Monarch
It would be interesting to know whether the makers of this film were at all influenced by a much earlier black comedy film about Stalin? This was "Red Monarch" a 1983 film starring Colin Blakely as Stalin and David Suchet as Beria. In terms of its approach to this particular subject and how it portrays the main characters the earlier film has some striking similarities to The Death of Stalin, though perhaps that's coincidental... Anyway, thought it might be worth mentioning. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:250D:4401:C130:B870:3CAA:2215 (talk • contribs) 09:13, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

how did joseph stalin really die?
A cast of IPs, some recently proxy-blocked, has been adding a subsection of historical accuracy. The section contains non-neutral language (see this section header), original research (an association with the Katyn massacre), and poor sourcing, as it's all sourced to this Spokesman book review that mentions the views espoused in the book but does not state them as fact. I am intending to revert this addition for the above reasons and will point to this section. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of other editors. Firefangledfeathers (talk) 14:41, 7 August 2021 (UTC)
 * No objections. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:15, 7 August 2021 (UTC)


 * This is a Foundation-banned editor (this guy). I'd recommend just reverting on sight. Everything he does is some form of original research, synthesis, or just fiction. Antandrus (talk) 19:14, 7 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info. Firefangledfeathers (talk) 19:16, 7 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tip-off. I guess he's not a reader of Cardiovascular Pathology then: Martinevans123 (talk) 19:23, 7 August 2021 (UTC) Martinevans123 (talk) 19:23, 7 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh, excellent! I hadn't seen that. I suspected there was a refutation for that (fairly recent) poisoning allegation. Antandrus (talk) 19:51, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Mezhnikov
The character of Mezhnikov (played by Jonathan Aris) is an actual historical person. I recall from my youth photos of him standing behind Molotov at events such as the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, although I'm not sure if Mezhnikov was his actual name or the correct spelling. He appears to have been some kind of chief of protocol, which would fit his role in the movie. I have tried to verify him on the internet, including the Russian Wikipedia, but have come up empty. Is anyone with access to mid-20th century RS material game for pursuing this? Tfdavisatsnetnet (talk) 15:45, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Cast
A review of the history of this article shows that the Cast list has varied between the major stars only and inclusion of minor characters. I would like to propose that the later view be adopted, at least for persons with existing Wiki biographies. The reasons for this are:

1) This article does serve as a de facto gateway into Russian history

2) Some of the minor characters are mentioned elsewhere in the article, especially in the Historical Accuracy section.

Does this sound reasonable? Tfdavisatsnetnet (talk) 19:08, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Historical accuracy: Dr. Lydia Timashuk
From the article:
 * Dr. Lydia Timashuk...dies in a mine field around Stalin's dacha after her sexual advances to Beria are rejected.

This scene was included in at least one U.S. theatrical release, but was not included in a DVD sold in the U.S. (but it is included in the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD) Tfdavisatsnetnet (talk) 03:44, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Death of Stalin which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 13:51, 19 April 2022 (UTC)