Stalin Thought of You

2009 • 57 minutes

About this movie

“At that time, nobody reacted to anything and in general talked as little as possible about it.” Boris Efimov’s appraisal of life in the Soviet Union smacks of fear and foreboding, of censorship and state intervention. It is surprising, then, that he enjoyed such success and, more impressively, such longevity in his role as a political cartoonist for the Soviet press. Publishing his first cartoon in 1916, Efimov went on to cover the Second World War – during which the Nazis to hang him on sight should he be caught – as well as the Nuremberg Trials and the superpower clashes of the Cold War. A browse of Efimov’s published work demonstrates a seemingly inexhaustible supply of jokes and images, which he deployed against characters as wide-ranging in nature and origin as Tsar Nicholas II and George Bush.

Ratings and reviews

I enjoyed this film immensely. As a lifelong student and now teacher of history, I found "Stalin Thought of You" to be one of the better exhibits of life during the despotic reign of Joseph Stalin from an angle we in the West do not always see. In the West, the Stalinist era is depicted in statistics (number of arrests, imprisonments, disappearances, killed) and general terms (gulag archipelago, show trials, purges). This film takes the unique perspective and experiences of one man, Boris Efimov telling a fascinating story while personalizing the terror of living in the time of Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria and "The Boss" Joseph Stalin. The filmmaker has uncovered never before seen footage of Stalin and other subjects of the era. There is a lot of content and texture to this film such that I found watching it a second time even better than the first as I picked up a number of subtle nuances. Best of all the filmmaker lets his subject speak for himself without inserting his own opinions leaving the viewer with a lot to ponder and the space to reach his or her own conclusions. Excellent film, I highly recommend it to history buffs and those who want to see an engrossing story.