History of the Soviet Union (1953–64) Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Georgi Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union. However the central figure in the immediate post-Stalin period was the former head of the state security apparatus, Lavrentiy Beria. Stalin had left the Soviet Union in an unenviable state when he died. At least 2.5 million people languished in prison and in labor camps, science and the arts had been subjugated to socialist realism, and agriculture productivity on the whole was meager. The country had only one quarter of the livestock it
Stalin (1992 film) Stalin (1992 film) Stalin is a 1992 television film, produced for HBO, starring Robert Duvall portraying Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The film won three Golden Globe Awards among various awards including cinematography awards for Vilmos Zsigmond as well as best actor for Robert Duvall. Filming was done in Budapest, Hungary and Moscow, Russia, with extraordinary access to Kremlin buildings in the weeks surrounding the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. The film portrays the political career and personal life of the former leader of the Soviet Union, Georgian-born Josef Djughashvili, who later adopted the name Joseph Stalin, demonstrating his rule and