Fun Fact: Zhukov and Eisenhower were good friends after WWII. They toured the USSR together. Eisenhower gifted Zhukov fishing tackle that supposedly Zhukov used for the rest of his life. I find it very interesting that the two men who were very much the architects of Allied armies in Europe were good friends. Both were very smart men.
Plus didn't Eisenhower send him Coca Cola disguised as vodka since Zhukov got addicted to it? Edit: sort of ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-E3uEOTHnxLM.html (1:25)
I liked the movie, and Isaacs in his role, but it was satire, not history. Zhukov, according to his contemporaries, was a great soldier but not lovable. He was caustic, very demanding of others, stubborn and quite willing to expend human lives. I find it hard to imagine the real Zhukov in the delightful movie scene where he fools Krushchev into thinking he'll report him, and then breaks into laughter and the words "look at your fucking face".
@@Tom-lg9ee Except that no, there are VERY clear descriptions of Zhukov and his character/mannerisms. This is very nearly NOTHING like him. The only similarity is the brashness and larger-than-life personality. He was very much NOT a man of quippy one-liners and snark. That being said, The Death of Stalin is 100% a satire. The IRL Zhukov simply didn't fit the script, so like many of the characters he was modified. Probably the most accurate part of him here is his uniform...
@Jon oh please. Are you American? You get a medal for learning how to use the big toilet. Commonwealth- campaign medals, and medals for being a fucking badass. And that’s it.
@Jon sure, I’m a commie because I believe in earning your medals as opposed to just being given them like some socialist. Your ignorance is matched only by your illiteracy.
Fun note: Armando Iannucci told his actors to not even bother with a Russian accent and just speak as they normally would. Isaacs took this one step further and gave Zhukov a Yorkshire accent to emphasize his toughness. EDIT: See comment below.
EDIT: I mean speaking English with a Russian accent to convey Russian (for example) is stupid and the guy responding misunderstood me. What I said: Speaking English with an accent to convey non-English is silly, anyways. It makes no sense. It's better and more immersive to just let the translation into English be translations.
I think that nobody ever loved the Soviet Union more than Zhukov did. Stalin loved himself and saw defending the Soviet Union as a means of becoming great himself. Zhukov loved the Soviet Union more than himself.
Zhukov was a soldier, he loved his country as some soldiers do. Politically among the top if we're talking about love for country at expense of self I'd say Molotov, but he loved the Soviet Union to a degree that was no longer practical. And ironically once it liberalised (to his own benefit cos his wife came back!) he started hating it? Idk I gotta read up maybe on Molotov. Dude seemed weird. Kruschev also I think genuinely believed and loved the project until he failed. He knew its brutality but thought it could all be worth it if only they can achieve their utopia. So I'd nominate him too.
@@someone28 At the same time, Zhukov was perpetually on guard. His daughter (I think) said he always had a bag ready to go in case Stalin ever decided he wasn't worth the risk of keeping around. He knew that at any time he may need to bolt.
Fun fact: Beria's predecessor was Nikolay Yezhov. He was executed a decade before, in 1940, and just like him, he too was begging for his life, weeping.
The funnest part of that fact is they themselves would try and torture and threaten revolutionaries and civil war veterans to get them to beg for their lives or beg for it to end but most of the people they tried kept repeating their allegiance to the Soviet Union and would die telling the truth that their comrades were not traitors. A stark contrast with how Yagoda, Yezhov, and Beria were having panic attacks and weeping and pissing their pants when being taken to execution.
"Have a job done right, call the Army!" "Go and kill them, won't you?" Zhukov said that his greatest moment in the Army wasn't taking Berlin, it was overthrowing and liquidating Beria.
He wasn't horrified of Zhukov. He was terrified of Zhukov and horrified of Beria, so much so that he would never leave his daughter unattended near Beria. Beria was a notorious pedo. Zhukov was the entire Red army. They did as Zhukov said. If Zhukov wanted stalin's seat he would've had it.
@@mehmeh1999 I do not know of any other Soviet party official being accused of being a serial rapist other than Beria . In Stalin Russia Ted Bundy gets to be the head of the security it seems
Zhukov's daughter denounced this movie sight unseen, likely with a little pressure from the Kremlin. I hope she and Zhukov's other descendants get to watch this movie and see how positively he is portrayed. As a character in this movie, Zhukov comes out as honorable, principled, brave, loyal, decisive, and far more ethical than the other players. If the real Zhukov had these same qualities, then Zhukov's family will have a movie they can treasure as they treasure his memory.
@@F40PH-2CATZhukov didn’t like politics, which is why he ended up sidelined in the first place. If he did, he most certainly had everything he needed to oust the rest of the committee and take over himself.
Cultural differences in Russia most likely. Zhukov was funny and tough in this film, but it’s not a faithful representation of his real life personality, which could come as disrespectful
That was one of the Monty Pythons as comrade Molotov, the bespectacled dude who kind of tiptoes his way around Beria's corpse?? O_o Man, I'll be damned if I remembered it was him.
No one Liked Beria even Stalin was scared of him imparticular Stalin didn't like leaving his daughter with Beria as he was such a notorious pedophile but kept him on board because he was so ruthless and effective at his job. Once Beria was no longer protected by Stalin it was only a mater of time.
beria ran the secret police and had the blessing of stalin they couldnt do anything till stalin was dead and the red army was close enough to be an effective counter to the secret police
Not much they could have done otherwise, he had the NKVD on his side and they had grown pretty powerful by then. Nobody liked what Beria was doing, he even made Stalin uncomfortable.
The very best Zhukov scene IMO. is his introductory scene where he throws off his heavy coat in slo-mo to reveal all the medals underneath and the music plays - pure awesome
i always like to believe that stalin gave himself that massive stroke stressing about how much cooler Zhukov was than him, and how literally everyone knew it. makes me feel better about the whole thing
@@ruralhobo Zhukov's statue riding a horse is on Red Square, commemorating hit taking of the victory parade. Stalin is nowwhere to be seen on Red Square, only his ahes placed in the Kremlin walls.
My great grandfather meet Zhukov after escaping a POW camp in Poland and being picked up by the Russians who were advancing toward Berlin at the time. He said he was very polite and professional.
@@scudworthsboss5858 My great grandfather was a Captain in the African theater before being captured. Spent 2 years in a camp before escaping. After being picked up by the Russians he was taken to a Red Army headquarters to arrange for transport back to the Americans. He noted that the Russians were always very dirty but kept great care of their weapons and were overall good professional soldiers. He was also taken off guard by how many female solders there were and the fact that some of the officers took there wives with them, lol. He was able to give the Russians good intel on the German whereabouts west of their current position. He said Zhukov made sure he, and the couple of others he was with, were put in good quarters and would send stolen German wine to him every night.
Beria's actor nailed this so well. The comedy scenes were hilarious and in this scene for example you really almost felt bad for him. All the voice cracks and the begging seemed so genuine. 5/5 acting.
The way he begged and squirmed is such a good example of acting, you really feel like you’re watching someone who knows he’s about to die when his sentenced was stated.
I think it was because Simon Russel Beale had such a good performance, that the writers left out of the script the bit where Beria's executioners stuffed a sock in his mouth to shut him up and THEN shot him
@@Kamina.D.Fierce The sexual charges are what they really convicted Beria of (and were actually true). Not that it really mattered, but it avoided the awkwardness of convicting him of political crimes they all shared.
Beria felt threatened by Zhukovs' status after WWII. He made a go at having him purged. Zhukov might have been a little pissed at this. I don't know exactly how things went. But Zhukov wanted Beria gone and probably took some satisfaction in seeing him liquidated.
@@alanwright7498 Think you're right. But Zhukov, I expect, had other motives too. Such as not seeing the Red Army subjugated to the NKVD, or MVD as it was then called. Plus a loyal relationship with Krushchev going back to WWII. Plus an intimate knowledge of who Beria really was, and alarm at the thought he could become the new dictator.
@@ruralhobo Beria raided Zhukovs' appartment in 1948 and found his undisclosed war loot, humiliating him publicly and getting him a sever dressing down from Stalin. You are also right in what you say. And we can both agree that Beria was a bit of an asshole. After reading about Beria years before TDOS it was good to see a reenactment of him getting shot in the face. A dark comedy indeed.
Sad fact was that after his execution they turned him house into an embassy for I think Algeria and when they started doing some maintenance work they discovered the bodies of several women Beria had killed
I just love how they actually have guards walk in during the cou and Zhukov gives the order to the red army soldiers to kill them. Guards already know they’ve saw something they shouldn’t and start running from their “comrads” wonddeeful USSR
They were NKVD troops who were working to stage their own coup for Beria...only Beria wasn't anticipating Khrushchev to not only stage his own coup, but stage it with complete support of the committee, and with none other than Zhukov himself, which meant the entire army was on Khrushchev's side as well.
It'd have been funny if one of them said. "You need any help with this?" And tried to join them. Regardless of what would happen to whoever said it, it would have been funny.
I know this doesn’t say much for my intelligence but I totally didn’t connect that this was the reason for their arrival lol. They were completely unfazed, so they weren’t in response mode Thanks
A small detail I like is when Malenkov whom was previously defending Beria upon reading the paper of the "Accusations" he comes to a full realization of how much of a monster Beria is and basically all opposition he once had for the coup just falls away.
Maybe, or join the winners once it was certain. I doubt any member of the inner group was unaware of Beria's hobbies. There's the fine old quote: "Treason doth never prosper, why and here's the reason. If it does non dare call it treason."
Also notice how someone hastily takes down Malenkov's portrait (showing that the Beria/Malenkov regime was already taking hold at this point) in the outhouse whilst Beria's having the charges read out to him. Malenkov is in the foreground of the brief shot totally unawares with his back to it. It's like watching Airplane!/Naked Gun etc, gotta watch it multiple times otherwise you miss a lot of little symbolic moves/gags etc.
It's pretty accurate actually as per History buffs video. Sure they took some liberty with the varying English accents but it showed how regional USSR is back then. Some scenes were stitched together like this scene where it took months instead of a day.
I like the bit where he comes in with his rifle raised, ready to shoot, but then sees what is happening at 0:17 and just casually hands his rifle over to the solider like it was just another day at the office.
I mean red army soldiers held high respect for zhukov and zhukov knew that. Soldiers would've done whatever he said. If he said jump, they'd say 'how high'. The soldier probably felt honoured to hold his AK.
Jason Issacs' Zhukov is one of the standout performances in a film packed full of standout performances. I love the portrayal with the Yorkshire accent, specifically chosen because it's a down-to-earth, no-nonsense accent associated with tough, working class northerners (they could have also gone for a Lancashire accent, but I'm slightly biased on that!) He's shown as a tough, uncompromising character who doesn't suffer fools, is wary of politicians and is rightfully respected by his men and treats them fairly. The real Zhukov was one of the most respected commanders of World War II, a war hero for whom the Red Army would do anything, and a Russian patriot. No wonder Stalin was jealous of him and his popularity.
Among all those politicians and genocidal maniacs, Zhúkov was a real man of honor, the only real patriot that loved the USSR for real and not just for the desire for Power. I think he deserved to Rule the country after the Death of Stalin. I wonder why he did not.
A good and popular general, as Zhukov was, does not necessarily make a good country president or ruler. Not to mention that maybe Zhukov was just not interested in taking the seat after Stalin.
Zhukov hated politics and the day-to-day minutiae of being politician. He avoided politics as much as possible but when Stalin died he took his opportunity to prevent Beria and his NKVD cronies from consolidating power - something Stalin had been wary of for some time. When Beria resigned as chief of the NKVD and became head of State Security instead, Stalin slowly began replacing Beria's loyal underlings from the positions of power that Beria had promoted them into. Still, Beria commanded the loyalty of the NKVD (and it's successor, the MVD) and was easily the most powerful member of the Politburo at the time of Stalin's death. His downfall was that the only man more powerful than him, Zhukov, absolutely hated his guts and had no problem finding allies to remove him.
Khrushchev turned out to be a pretty good leader. He effectively ended the period of severe excess and violence under Stalin. Even ending the practice of summary executions.
Zhukov was a genius general, but a hard hearted man too; he didn't spare soldiers lives in the way he threw them into battles, unlike Rokkovssky. Still, compared to Beria he was an angel of the first degree. It would've been a disaster to have Beria replace Stalin.
3:31 might actually depict quite well the overall chaos when all this happened, even if this all is fictionalised. Someone just shoots Berija, even Zhukov seems perplexed for a second, but the goal is achieved: Berija is dead. The shooter remains anonymous. So much of the film is concentrated on who says what and when - and what it means when it comes to responsibility of everything happening. Most of the characters try to remain "innocent". Everyone's in on it, everyone also tries to keep a distance, everyone tries to secure future power. "Things just happen, it wasn't me" - just like shooting Berija.
Berija was earlier the head of the NKVD, which murdered millions in the 1930s, also many officers. The execution of Berija was the officers' families/relatives justified revenge.
Yes, Zhukov had lost friends in the 1939 purge conducted by Beria that killed a third of the Red Army's leadership. In particular Beria had personally tortured Zhukov's mentor, Tukhachevsky. Zhukov himself only narrowly escaped by being sent to command an army in eastern Siberia, where he got himself back into Stalin's good books by giving the Japanese a hiding in the border war of 1940.
Every time I see scenes, now that I recognize one of Zhukov's lieutenants as Leonid Brezhnev, I can't help but see him in the background of all his scenes.
Political officers vs battle hardened soldiers led by possibly the best military commander of the Soviets... actually surprised the USSR didn't fall apart when Zhukov passed.
Zukhov was the ONLY man Stalin couldn't kill. He had the love of the army and it's citizens. He wasn't a rabbit, he was a lion. They actually started calling him King maker, Stalin hated EVERY second of it. So when Stalin died everyone and they momma was running to Zukhov to get his blessing cause he had the military
It is so easy, sometimes, to bring down the system. You just take out the top element or the head figure in shortest amount of time, and it's over. Now, just blame him for all past evils on him and bury it with him, to grave.
“Well that’s got it done.” I would swear that Issacs had a slightly disturbed look on his face when he looks away from Beria’s body. Issacs NAILED this role! Also, if you look closely at what the camera shows (even in passing), it’s significant. When Beria’s list of rape charges is read, the camera passes a drawn pistol, then his portrait being taken down. Some serious foreshadowing there.
i remember an interview from the director, he said he didn't give anyone any places to stand in this scene and wanted all the actors to find their own places in the scene, it helped make it more chaotic and confusing.
He got off easy. In the 1980s a Soviet airforce colonel of jet fighter squadron was sentenced to death by being burned alive. His crime was multiple rapes of wives of aircrew whom he sent on assignment. Hence the poor young ladies were alone at home. In accordance with this death sentence it was conducted on a parade square. His whole squadron at attention to witness sentence carried out. This is a rare event and said to be only officially carried out just three times since 1953ish.
The witness refuses to talk about it. He only mentioned it once after Xmas dinner. I am guessing only was a 1980s event. In around 1970 there was a woman killed in rural Norway by burning. Her clothing had no tags on them. She was not dressed for hiking on the mountain trail they discovered her body. This kind of reeks of GRU hunting down a defecting spy.
Man I wish they had a heavy Scottish/ or Welish accented actor just burst in wearing Russian medals join the American and British accent crowd It would’ve added to the hilarity
Brezhnev has a Scottish accent. A lot of his scenes can only be seen in the deleted cut, but he’s the one who says “I’ll take the tall blonde” in this video.
Zhukov about the only honorable man in the room also if I was one of the guards holding barrier at that moment when they fired I’d be pissed to say the least Tokarevs Have one of the biggest fireballs that can come out of a handgun I know that’s not actually how it went real life but still
Look up Lavrenty Beria (the man who is arrested and shot in this scene) and then see if you still think it's "unfair". (Granted, some of the others also had their own skeletons in the closet and were being somewhat hypocritical, but still, he deserved what he got)
With Zhukov I like how he walks into the Kremlin with a jacket with two AKs hidden underneath and the curious question is how did he get those AKs to hang on his sides like that underneath his jacket?
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
Earlier in the film, the bald fat one said he never forgets a name. Then they list off the names on the sentence. And he clams up and looks almost distant. Remembering. Kinda disturbing
