Nevsky/Stalin

[Keith]

I'll bet if you were a Russian in a theater watching that film when  
it came out, you'd look at all of this quite differently. The film  
was commissioned by Stalin to warn the Russians about the German  
threat, so its very reason for being made was to represent the  
contemporary situation. Of course, directors didn't need a film about  
Nevsky to make this point, but Stalin requested it, and Nevsky  
delivered, ulitmately not to Stalin's satisfaction. This film was  
made with a political agenda and was meant to stand for something  
else. To say that it is an exaggeration to suggest that Nevsky stands  
for Stalin ignores the original point - that Nevsky wasn't used to  
*stand for* Stalin, he was used to *glorify* him as leader of the USSR.

>
> Yeah, he should've been represented by someone with a steno pad.
>
> The Russians weren't prone to glorifying anyone, let alone a lowly   
> secretary.

BTW, Stalin WAS a lowly secretary in the beginning, that is why he  
wasn't taken that seriously by his political rivals and then it was  
too late. However, that wasn't my meaning here (see my previous  
message about the use of the article, I used it to denote his  
official post, meaning that it was political not military and in 1938  
Russia was still out of war with Germany).

I didn't say that the Russians 'weren't prone to glorifying anyone',  
so that's not fair, Keith. They were and are, just like the  
Americans, the French, the Germans and any other nation. But the  
thing is, Soviet directors didn't need Alexander Nevsky to glorify  
Stalin, he was glorified as himself, there were films made about  
Stalin in which he appeared as, well, Stalin. In every city there was  
his monument. His portraits were hung everywhere. Poets composed  
eulogies to comrade Stalin. These were glorifications of Stalin.  
However, 'Alexander Nevsky' wasn't.

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