General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union more than determine party membership composition. Stalin, its first incumbent, used the principles of democratic centralism to transform his office into that of party leader, and later leader of the Soviet Union. In 1934, the 17th Party Congress refrained from formally re-electing Stalin as General Secretary. However, Stalin was re-elected into all other positions and remained leader of the party without diminishment. In the 1950s, Stalin increasingly withdrew from Secretariat business, leaving the supervision of the body to Georgy Malenkov, possibly to test him as a potential successor. In October 1952, at the 19th Party Congress, Stalin restructured the party's
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