The Death of Stalin - The Coup 

1:16 Brezhnev is badass here He is my favorite Soviet leader Brezhnev is pointing gun at Beria

@@markoprskalo6127And here I had no idea that was Brezhnev!

It was an accident! An accident when the plane falls in a dive

Brezhnev was pointing the gun?? Is that creative licence or was he actually there???

@@markoprskalo6127 Brezhnev is the one who's searching Berija. Look at his eyebrows.

Beria is that one groupmate that would fuck everything up

I take it one guy wasn’t contributing anything or he tried to take all the credit. So you had him shot before he turned anything in.

@@whoknowswhocares885 yup! the court trial was a bit rough but I ended up ok

@KingArthurII *_I'm always the one that ends up leading the entire project_*

Molotov would be that one guy who constantly asks the teacher if everything is as they expected

They’re still using Mosins on both sides in Ukraine today, among so many other conflicts. They just can’t die.

@@5roundsrapid263 My favorite rifle is the Mosin Nagant it doesn't need oil at all, and it's so satisfying when you shoot it, its like getting drop kicked in the shoulder. You dont even need to reload the mosin, they're so cheap that you can just buy a new one when the ammo runs out. The best part about shooting them is the visit to to chiropractor after youre done shooting it. Or if you cant get to one, just use the next shot to put your shoulder back into place. I actually keep a mosin around the house, and use it as a hammer or if someone breaks in, i can use it as a club or pike, i also use the bayonet to make shishkabobs when babooshka isnt around. I once put the bayonet on the gun, and stood up, i took a one foot chunk of plaster out of the ceiling and my wife wouldnt talk to me for a week. And the smell when you buy 10 of them, you open the crate and are met with the smell of cosmoline, low grade shellac, and the 100 year old blood of facist pigs long dead. When i was on the pole vault team during high school, i find that the long poles were too flimsy, so i just used my mosin nagant, I won first place. When i was in the navy, i found that the deck cannons were too small, and secretly replaced them with mosin nagants, we destroyed 50 ships that day. One time i ran over a mosin nagant, my car exploded destroying the 50 mosins in my trunk... the thing wasnt even loaded and luckily i have another 500 at home, so it wasnt a big loss. One time i was out camping, and had no firewood, so i shot a tree. It was blown in half and now i had firewood. Once i forgot my lighter at home but had my trusty mosin with me, so i tried to light a cigarette with it, i destroyed the cigarette and my entire upper body. I once went to an airsoft battle with my mosin, and fired blanks, i won. When i was on my high school baseball team, i realized that bats are too expensive, so i used my mosin, every time i hit the ball it was so far away that rifles were banned from my baseball team. Instead of lawn darts, my family used mosin nagants for fun, they're 10 times as lethal for 1/10th the price. Once when i ran out of ammo and didnt have another mosin handy i just rigged it to shoot chain linked ammo. Once when i was playing moses in a kindergarten play, god wouldnt part the waters for me, so i just fired my mosin and the waters parted. Instead of truck nuts, i hang a mosin nagant on my trailer hitch. When going across the volga everyone forgot their boat oars, so we just used our mosins. When target shooting, i have to have the target at 150 meters away because at 100 the muzzle is going through the target. The mosin nagant has fought in many wars against itself, and has won every time. I shot a mosin nagant at work once, and its muzzle flash set off the sprinkler system. Once i was out of firewood and had 50 mosins in the trunk of my car, so i piled up 49 of them shot the pile and ended up starting a forest fire in an area with no trees. One of my mosins came free with the purchase of a bayonet. I once Shot a mosin into the ground, that area is now known as the Vredefort crater. Mosin is love Mosin is life

you talk about stalin and found traces of drugs in the white house?

Now I know why the AK and it's derivatives are so common in some parts of the world. Dirt cheap since millions perhaps billions were made and they last forever.

The Type 1 AK47 was actually stamped, not milled but it had a very high defect rate because of problems with the implementation of German metal stamping technology. They had to resort to milling in order to make the Type 2 and 3 AK47's.

Difference between an army and party.

In the words of Zhukov "I beat the entire German Army, I think I can handle a fleshbag in a waistcoat"

@@tyler89557 ‘I focked Germany.’

Even Stalin feared Zhukov.

@@xalthzdornier4805 Stalin feared Beria as well But for reasons that would disgust even the most vicious dictators in history.

Stalins daughter WAS alone with Berija for a while, in the summer 36-37-38-39 is a very nice photo when Svetlana is sitting on the lap of Uncle Berija. There was one instance where Berija came to Stalin's home, and waited for Stalin to arrive. When Stalin heard that Berija was at his home, alone with his children, he hurried home instantly. Stalin was very fond of Svetlana.

interesting. I know that during a Meeting with the German ambassador before Operation Barbarossa, he apparently also introduce Beria as "our Himmler"

everyone but me gotta learn ur cringe

You should read the book ''Stalin: The court of the Red Tsar''. It's very insightful and goes in full detail as to what was really going in Stalins inner circle and especially very detailed tales about Berias monstrous acts.

actually Beria was a pedofile. There was a lot of speculations about it even at that time. When you was 50 he seen a cute-looking girl at the street at send his NKVD goon to stalk her. Later it was found that this girl was 16, Beria raped her and thay had a bastard baby.

Is there any good documentaries or books(especially books) you can recommend to read about him?

@@hardassteel there's a great line in the film where he says to Nikita ' I fucked Germany, I think I can fuck a fleshlump in a waistcoat' 😂 He was an incredible man and its good that this movie taught more people about him

Not without Rokossovsky he didn't

Zhukov is supposed to be the Soviet Man, while Beria is supposed to be everything the Union should have destroyed. The problem is, they’re both Soviet. I think that’s probably one of the main points of the movie.

@@hardassteel well that’s just that. To think that anything would be more important than defeating Nazi Germany in the eyes of the hero of the Soviet Union should really tell you how evil beria truly was

well... compared to defeating the Nazis and surviving Stalin's purges, this was a sunny afternoon game for him

His whole attitude during the film is that of a guy who knows he's completely untouchable since he's the idolized WWII hero with the army devoted to him. So he can troll anyone he wants and do stuff like punching Stalin's own son in the gut, completely secure in the knowledge that no one will stop him.

After WW1, The Revolution, ALL os Stalin's (and Beria's) Purges, WW2; this was basally nothing!

I'm going to have to report this comment! Threatening to do harm to a member of the presidium, in the process of .... ... .. . Look at your fucking face!! Zhukov fucked Germany! He can take that fleshlump in a waistcoat!

It's the disposition of a person at the top of their profession who still loves what they do. When you're that experienced, you already know what to do and expect, and you're so relaxed as a result that cracking jokes and making small talk just comes naturally no matter the seriousness.

I think that was his poor attempts to try and regain control. Throughout the movie, Georgy thought he was in charge but now, he is realizing that it was Beria who had all the real power.

@@robertwalker5794 Or even earlier than that when Khrushchev all but told him Beria was going down and he naively thought he could demote him to “Minister of Fisheries”.

They really sound like best friends on highschool with zhukov leading the gang🤣

Priorities.

Здрава глиномесы! Вы нихуя не знаете про Россию..

He was the only General who would stand up to Stalin...and one of the only ones he'd listen to.

​@@charlesharper2357Rokossovsky did the same thing with during operation bagration and he made it alive as well.

@@lajsin Don't know where you got that from...Zhukov actually pushed for the two pronged approach.

Zhukov, like the rest of Stavka, supported idea of one massive breakthrough that could be exploited, meanwhile Rokossovsky solely advocated for breaking main advance into several coordinated groups. Stalin placed all bets on Rokossovskys plan. @@charlesharper2357

Да ладно? А как он жуков награбленное привез себе лично из немецкой войны?

Indeed. It was alleged that Beria even molested Svetlana Stalin when she was a little girl.

@@thisisajang probably false , stalin would do something if he did somthing like this

Naah even Beria knew not to fuck with Stalin

The only day the soviet people were happier than the day Stalin died is the day when Beria died

Stalin knew that Beria was a sexual predator. Once he learned his daughter was alone with him, he called her and told her to get out of the house now. When Stalin was on his deathbed, in front of him, Beria began to mock Stalin. While this was happening, Stalin regain consciousness and appeared to recovered, Beria got on his knees, kissed Stalin’s hand and begged his forgiveness. This man was a true sexual predator and a coward. No wonder called Beria The Soviets “Himmler.”

Literally has popcorn while watching this whole thing in the afterlife

Also he despised Beria anyway. He was useful to him, but absolutely not someone he liked or trusted.

I love how whimsically this line is delivered. Molotov didn't have many lines in the film, but this is a top one.

Stalin hated Beria, so ofc he would've loved this

@@WhyTho525Hell, Stalin didn’t even want Beria as head of the NKVD, (he wanted Georgy Malenkov as that) Beria was elected to the position by the Party.

Simon Russell Beale is an amazing actor.

Looks so similar, too. The man ballooned in his 50s

Amen

I can think of a Mr. Madison who'd be glad to have called THAT guy. Where's that ELO coming from?

Poor tukhachevsky, the man who was first five original the marshal of soviet union along with voroshilov, got purged during Great Purge

And he's completely correct too, Solzhenitsyn would approve. Though I feel like real life Khrushchev was probably not as moral as he is in this movie.

I can’t think of a lot of things more evil than strangling someone’s mother after that person begged for her to get good care.

They just nonchalantly cuck the NKVD, beautiful

Loved this film. What else was he referring to?

​@@pantalomecrimes, beria crimes

No. He just wanted it done quickly. It was always going to be a bullet and a bonfire. It's not the crimes he committed, it's how dangerous he was.

Or he put on a really good act

The most ironic about this is that they also werent innocent at all, thats the exact reason why they killed Beria, they didnt give a fuck about what he did they just wanted to silence him because he had info on all of them.

None of the other Soviet leaders, including Khrushchev, are what we call "good" people as they all have blood on their hands, but they all have the "we did what we had to do" attitude for (a) the greater good or at least the lesser of two evils and (b) in order to survive under Stalin. None of them are proud of what they did. Beria, on the other hand, is a sadistic monster who openly revels in the pain and suffering he causes. Understandably, they're disgusted and horrified by such a man and would want him gone.

@@mst3KGf Pretty sure Nazis had the same attitude? "Did what we were told/'had' to do". Doesn't make it right ultimately though.

you learn something new everyday

@@Artur-fj5pn It is a stellar cast though.

Where the hell is "Middle England?"

@@samtrotter7177 somewhere next to Middle Earth I guess

I noticed that too, but it’s actually a deliberate detail by the directors! It’s meant to demonstrate the different regions of the USSR that the top soviet leaders came from. For example, Georgy Malenkov speaks in a very regal British accent because he was born in Orenberg into a wealthy family of Russian officers, while Kruschev talks in a working class American accent due to his youth in a poor Russian village. The biggest accent is Stalin’s cockney, demonstrating his childhood in rough, poverty stricken Georgia and his brutish nature as a leader.

They knew they lost. Had they been first to react the situation would have likely been reversed and many of the turncoats within the Politbureau would have been sided with Beria instead to save their own skin.

Beria (and even some of us) doesn't realize that the guards he think is just a normal NKVD (his men), but if we look from a bit closer it's the real Red Army, probably being planned to be there by either Krushchev or Zhukov himself.

@@asllen3310 Yeah if that were me I'd have my guys dress up as one of them

@@asllen3310 actually, the NKVD have blue caps. The Red Army has olive green

Don't forget the worthlessness of loyalty and the obviousness of Beria's fall.

@@tektoastium7241 yes that! the guards on the meeting room wore olive green caps! that the detail!

Malenkov as the part of Anti-Party Group lead by Kaganovich tried to oust Khrushchev from his post as the Gen Sec. But Marshal Zhukov saved him.

Normally, in Soviet politics, if you lose the power struggles the worse you get is getting demoted and shoved off to fill some backwater humiliating post, like becoming the ambassador of Mongolia (in the case of Molotov following the failed coup against Khrushev), or made to run a candlewax factory. Others just get retired early. The mass executions and the mass incarcerations in gulags were mostly a product of the Stalinist era and following it the Soviets actively moved away from such practices, even if they still do occur at a much reduced frequency and with far less lethality.

@@TheVoiceOfReason93 They realized they were scaring off the best and brightest.

That's kinda good, being head of a powerplant is kinda good for the time, it's better than starving to death or being tortured to death by the secret police

Malenkov outlived them all. After his overthrow he was allowed to live and eventually settled into a quiet retirement in Moscow. In quite possibly the greatest irony in history, Malenkov converted to Orthodox Christianity before his death in 1988 at the age of 86. In his final years he was very active in church services. One wonders if he spent his time praying for the forgiveness of the millions of people he helped to kill.

I always wondered how that meant using the bathroom. Thank you.

Additional fun fact. The Actor playing Molotov is Micheal Palin. A British gentleman. I wonder if he ad-libbed this for laughs.

This one made me laugh so hard, and how all the actors are using their native colloquialisms

In Russia public toilets were often manned by some attendant, usually some retired person, and you would have to pay them to use it.

@@JB-uu8khven American public toilets were often coin-operated until the ‘70s.

He was hilarious

" Fock Me, Georgy eyes follows me in this room "

"Alright, what's a war hero gotta do to get some LUBRICATION around here?!?" **

0:43 - "Hands up or I shoot you in the fokin' face!"

"Spit it out Georgy, stagin a coup here." That and when the NKVD soldiers take off, "go on, kill them will ya." 😂

It’s pretty ambiguous. He didn’t head the trial when he had the power to do so but when he saw it he also didn’t do anything to save him.

He was a bit of a coward. At least in the context of the movie. I think he was afraid of Beria's wrath should the tables be turned, but he also didn't want to incite the wrath of his other colleagues.

Malenkov its a coward man He didn't do anything because he know if he try save Beria he will getting execute too

That's a good detail.

It's funny that Jeffrey Tambor can play all of these comical roles but when he's playing a serious character he still manages to make him somewhat comical playing someone who doesn't seem to have a clue.

Yes, I loved that part too.

Hilarious, but also terrifying how everyone just accepts it.

@@Uppernorwood976 : They were NKVD officers, them being free game if anything made a lot of people feel a lot safer.

Just like he said "I fucked the German army, I think I can take a fleshball in a suit"

@@HelghastStalker Don't forget feared. In this movie his ability to provide the heavy army support is what carries the day, and it probably did in real life as well; People were right to be scared shitless of him.

@James Hagan Actually no. The Bolsheviks were wary of any 'Napoleon' or 'Caesar' figures who could usurp the revolution and went far to keep a lid on the power of the army partly to prevent that. Apart from his outsider status and abrasive personality, Leon Trotsky was kicked out because of his role in forming the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, and many feared that he could use it to seize power. Zhukov would not be allowed anywhere near the Presidium - in fact, within a few years of Stalin's death and Khrushev seizing power Zhukov would be sidelined and forced to retire.

I love Jason Isaacs' portrayal of Zhukov in this film. Zhukov's daughter claimed that she was appalled, that her father never used foul language, etc.

Fun fact They had to reduce his number of medals for the movie because if they portrayed how many medals he actually had it would one, look insane and two Isaac wouldn't be able to do any form of "advanced" movement (such as running), he would basically be reduced to a slow walk :p

Not every NKVD personnel was killed (surrendered NKVD soldiers were just disarmed when the army reinforcement arrives). They were higher ups and had close ties with Beria. Unlikely that they would have been spared.

One of them is the man that Zhukov degrades when he first enters. He feminizes him saying 'stick you in a skirt' etc. The guy was part of the hated NKVD. Zhukov was probably always going to have him killed. He established dominance in his first words to him.

Fun fact, in real life two MVD guards DID walk in and stumbled across the coup! One of the generals immediately put them in touch with Bulganin over the phone who SOMEHOW managed to convince them to leave and not say anything! God what I would give to hear that conversation! (Translated of course) LOL!!!

One of those was Beria's assistant in the movie. He was always dead

​@@Patrick_3751 The conversation would have been "you can go now and be quite, or, you can stay and go to a gulag". I am sure they were not stupid and knew what was going on, so they just did as they were told to do.

"You hear something?" "Just the wind"

@@pogcompagni To be fair, after Stalin's guards pretended, earlier in the movie, not having heard him falling inside his quarters to avoid trouble, I suspect it was standard practice.

@@thiagodeandrade7081 true, everybody was afraid at time in the soviet union

@@pogcompagni I think so.

Underrated comment

brilliant writing....the backbone of any great movie you really liked....

Fast forward to June 24, 2023. Russia is a timeless mess.

@@richardcoughlin8931 It is? Moscow looks fine, Paris is burning.

​@@prebenjaeger Parisians rioting and setting the city on fire is pretty standard status quo stuff for France, tbh. In other countries, that might show signs of a crisis, in France it's just your run-of-the-mill Friday afternoon.

You could kill him a thousand times over, in a thousand different ways, and it still wouldn’t be justice enough for everything he did.

It is however vastly amusing that in reality apparently his last words were “Allow me to say..” before being shot. Clearly, he wasn’t allowed.

Look at it this way: Beria is forgotten by the world at large, considered a footnote in the stories of other men. What greater indignity is there then for a powerful man to be forgotten?

We know the ins and outs of Hitler. We know what he ate in the trenches. We know what he read in jail. We know everything there is to know about the man but ask your average college student about Beria and they wouldn't even know how to say his name. While it might be justice that he is forgotten, the world needs to know about this murderous history as much as they need to know about Hitler's brutal regime.

@@deanpd3402 if people wanna talk about Stalin they should also talk about Beria

The KGB didn't exist yet. It was founded the year after Berias death.

@@GabrielNichoBeria owned the MVD.

NKVD: the KGB was the successor

@@Peter43John The NKVD came first, then the MVD, then MGB, and then the KGB.

In cold climates like Russia, windows are typically always double-paned so the heat doesn't escape so easily. They aren't specifically soundproofed

@@TheSuspectOnFoot just conveniently soundproofed

@@deadstareffect to be fair, lots of things are conveniently sound proof because of how sound works, when trying to keep something in or something.

@@animo9050 neat

I have lived in Kazakhstan where many buildings are designed and built in Soviet style and I can assure you most of their walls and windows are soundproof especially the "Stalinka" buildings

Context?

@@gtbest5417 Pretty much acknowledging that Khrushchev is now calling the shots

@@blackpowderuser373 i think thats too because he fins the portrait extremely ugly hahahah. Its a Two way joke.

@@Joao-jx1lo He said that he wanted the portrait with his chin up to be destroyed

Was this one of those deleted scenes?

The movie is a prime example that an actor's performance weighs more than physical similarities to historical persons.

He was a young high ranking lad then.

@@xalthzdornier4805 well from what I gather the second world war gave lots of advancement opportunities. Between the German army and the NKVD, positions of power were always becoming available.

Ok

Woah. That’s very young for a general

@@Prauwlet213 Marshal, actually. That's higher than general. In modern times that rank nolonger exists, because no army is big enough to need it and because someone decided to make it fashionable that a civilian president should be the highest commander. Also, the reason why russia had relatively young officers during and after WW2 was that shortly before the war, Stalin had purged the military and had all senior staff killed.

If you had told me Steve Buscemi would play Nikita Khrushchev and pull it off really well, I would have laughed at you. Until I saw this movie.

It's the key this whole movie stands on. You recognize your working class uncle and your flimsy middle manager and your eccentric middle school pal in these people. There was something unusually ruthless and opportunistic about them... but it's amazing how much it disappears in their average-ness.

I think he would have done a great Beria, but this was a comedy.. twisted, but comedy

Well i would give my life for the motherland!

Nucky was a great character/anti-hero that I was so very happy to see get blasted in the face. Like Tony Soprano, his own actions and inactions led him to him rightly deserved demise.

Not the same army.

No love for Russia's army, but relative to how a certain ex-KGB officer thinks wars should go they are still the competent ones. Relative.

This movie was pre Ukraine. So ..

This was Soviet Army post-WW2 when it was extremely powerful and was about to be further bolstered by the Warsaw pact. USSR is no more and right now Russia is struggling with Ukraine while in the USSR period Ukraine provided a huge amount of personnel to the Soviet Army (varied between 10-20% depending on the year).

Is that a Saori cosplay?

Things were just as crazy after Vladimir Lenin’s death, with Stalin and Trotsky.

Nice pfp bro

@@brandonlyon730 Trotsky's alienation didn't help him

Best part was that it was true. Stalin actually would have loved this. I think he would even walk alongside them with Beria begging Stalin for mercy. Perhaps Stalin would even have the pleasure of personally dragging Beria.

Its the ultimate goal in life; having a dedicated group of lads apart of something much bigger than yourself. This kind of camaraderie and jeering makes these fifty year old Soviet dinosaurs seem like high school seniors.

@@gregorylumban-gaol3889 And he would have. He really really wanted to kill beria for the longest time but what prevented him is Beria's Powerbase within the georgian Politiburo and his tight hold in the NKVD. Stalin on multiple occasion after the war had already decimated the Georgian Soviets in an effort to secure enough power to arrest Beria. He suceeded in destroying the georgians but it was not enough to secure Beria's Arrest.

@@citus333 Stalin tolerated Beria because he used to get the job done... after the war when Beria was trying to centralize power around the NKVD by using the georgian mingrelian minority (of which beria belonged to), Stalin purged them all, im talking about a small scale genocide of an ethnic minority... needless to say that after this 'incident', beria never tried anything 'funny' again, not to mention that he, out of every other ministers, was TERRIFIED of Stalin, and Stalin surely loved to bully beria more than anyone else

@@s3c0nd1mpact That's a really weird "ultimate goal in life"

The funnier part is, if you pay attention to the NKVD guards, is they aren't investigating what is happening, they're bringing in snacks. There are four of them and one of the ones in the back is holding a tray with food on it. Apparently irl a couple of MVD, the successor tot he NKVD, did walk in on the coup but were talked into being quiet.

@@Riku-zv5dk You're absolutely correct, it makes it even more funny. "I'm just bringing in snacks but I see the Red Army here with AK-47s"

"You. Go and kill them."

But Beria begged for the same mercy his victims begged for.

Buscemi's amazing with the depth he gives Khrushchev. The whole movie till now he's alternately playing the goofball or the wily politician but this is the first time he goes completely, deadly serious. He is no longer screwing around, and all of a sudden the rest of the Presidium gets reminded that the reason little Nicky knows Zhukov is because they both survived _the Battle of goddamn Stalingrad._

Their job is simple. Follow orders of whoever in charge without questioning. Not get mixed up in political games on their own

Most likely they were in on it. Zhukov probably deliberately placed them there while Beria had the NKVD find scapegoats for the massacre.

Well... It's not a direct enemy attack but very clearly a coup. In totalitarian regimes people quite often prefer to be passive. During the 1991 coup against Gorbachev the army was also confused and preferred not to take action, which helped the coups collapse.

The guards guarding where relived

@@galshaine2018 Well I saw this in a different comment section in this video, Beria had the loyalty of the NKVD, who wore blue caps, like you can see outside the building, but the ones in the room wore olive caps, denoting them as members of the Red Army, and likely under the command of Zhukov. So they probably knew what their job was before the coup took place.

That's what they wrote down afterwards, yes. That's why this satire works, you can't be sure it wasn't really like that, since everything was documented in the "right" way.

@@yomer355 bizarre.

@@yomer355 exactly

What happened was when Khrushchev loudly denounced Beria as an anti-communist and a western collaborator, the presidium erupted in rage. And before the votes were casted, Malenkov panicked, pressing the button under his desk.

@@michaellynes3540 and where did you find that information? Nikita Khrushchev lied during the infamous de-Stalinisation speech

In 1939, the USSR invaded Finland. It didn't go too well for them at first: Red Army tanks were forced to stick to the roads, which were easily blocked. Meanwhile the Finns (all of whom learned to ski almost as soon as they learned to walk) made a devastating series of hit-and-run raids on stalled Soviet columns. In desperation, the Red Air Force started bombing Finnish cities. The world protested. Soviet foreign minster Molotov insisted that they weren't dropping bombs but emergency food supplies as Finnish civilians were starving. When Finnish troops heard this, they told the Soviets "Here are some cocktails to go with the food," and lobbed petrol bombs. Hence Molotov Cocktails. Yes, Michael Palin's performance was great - but Molotov was not a nice man. If he had a heart, it was a very strange one.

@@lomax343 yes, they were all horrible men. It’s not a documentary.

He was a brilliant General same as Zhukov, if Zhukov was on the list of purges well USSR is good as dead by the German Reich

Had Marshal Tuckachevsky actually been listened to by Stalin and the Soviet military industrial complex moved to make more tanks to correspond with his brilliant work on armored warfare, the Germans could’ve quite possibly been stopped well short of where they advanced to in reality and quite possibly millions of lives could have been saved

@@zachhoward9099 With Zhukov and Tuckachevsky together, they could even do more damage to the Germans But if Kulik and Budyonny together? These 2 dumbass can do more damage to their own armies

His torture was so brutal that there were blood stains on the confession paper they made him sign. Zhukov pays homage to him and his ingenious theories in his memoirs, though he, for understandable reasons, didn't mention the purge.

@@morepower1415 Well no. Not really a great tactician if you look at his records. His opponents were mostly inferior to his army and it usually took him two attempts to defeat them. Out of all the Generals that was purged, only he actually fought his way up in the wars and even then, his record is average at best. You could say Stalin was purging some Generals who were incompetent in their jobs. Zhukov was a far superior commander and he didn’t need Tuckachevsky. I don’t think there’s any doubt that if Tuckachevsky lived, the Germans would easily steamroll the army he commands.

lads with blue shoulder boards, gorget patches and caps with red trimming and blue covers are NKVD (technically should be MVD), the army drab ones with red trimming, red gorget patches and shoulder boards are Army

@@spartangaming1352 nkgb

Da (Yes in Russian)

The NKVD was a state security bureau that operated as Stalin's secret police. Basically political crimes that threatened his power. Their name, like many shadowy Soviet government names, was euphemistic and unassuming. "People's Bureau for Internal Affairs". Despite their uniform being similar, they were not military. They reported to the Ministry for Internal Affairs, not Defence

@@CodaMission They also had their own army, and even their own navy. Though the later was more of a Russian version of the coast guard, and I think their "army" was designated as a border guard.

Harder to run away, but easier to have a wank, so it evens itself out.

Zhukov: Spill it out, Georgy! We’re staging a coup here! Malenkov: He’s got a knife by his ankle.

60 or so idiots smearing shit on a wall, nicking a podium and leaving when they got bored is hardly what I would call a vigorous attempt at a coup or subverting democracy. The six city blocks in Seattle last June that were taken over for a month by a figure as high as 10,000 on some days, that could definitely be considered an insurrection aimed at subverting democracy, but I doubt anyone who liked the above comment could refrain from performing the mental gymnastics required to disagree with me.

@@nervesconcord at first read i didnt understand what you meant then i realized you were talking about the raid on the white house not the coup in the burma which i thought prior comment meant.

@@kubikkuratko188 hahahahahaha

Not really, stop being a drama Queen.

@@nervesconcord Well I don't think anyone believed it to be an actual "coup". I just thought that it was funny I found the video in my recommended feed just as I got home from work one night and read what was happening at the Capitol at the time, and I made an off-hand comment just before going to bed not really thinking anyone would care but clearly I was wrong. For the record, I know it wasn't a coup, your explanation or whatever was unnecessary. I know your comment is two months old but people still are commenting on this two months from now and I seemingly have to explain a comment I didn't think would need explaining lol

At 0:48

👊🤜😵🤕

Zhukov: Spill it out Georgy, we're staging a coup here. Malenkov: He's got a knife by his ankle.

@@michaellynes3540 Beria: You're a disgrace!! 😡

@Muff Noudmiseni what did that have to do with anything?

the double punch is what had me laughing the way Beria head rocked back from the impact of the punch 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Also later on when Beria gets executed by a shot to the head, he gives the soldier who did it a look that screams, "Hey, I wanted to do that!"

So if you were about to die, you'd just give up and take the bullet? Sounds like what a bitch would do. Men usually prefer to survive.

Even Zhukov looked annoyed at that sight

That zoom out to the guards who couldn't hear him is an underrated funny moment

That's awesome, but I also like Khrushchev talking like a mobster from New Jersey.

I can't recall where I saw it but I heard that they gave him a Yorkshire accent to make it clear he was a 'man of the people' and that he didn't take any shit.

@@javierpatag3609 I saw an interview with the production where they said they deliberately chose the accents of the mains to match their character. Zhukov was Yorkshire, indicating he was a common man who didn't take any shit, Beria was Cockney indicating he was shiftless and untrustworthy (don't yell at me, that's just the stereotype) and Khrushchev was classic Brooklyn, indicating he was clever, resourceful and likely to survive the purges.

@@benrig89 Yes and Stalin has a Cockney accent due to his background as a poor Georgian peasant.

@@benrig89 A Brummie accent would have been funnier.

The rape cases were likely factual

@@longyu9336 Stalin himself was very wary of Beria.

@@John-rn1nm yeah, when he heard beria was with his daughter, he immediately sent the nkvd to get her back

Tell that to Matt Gaetz.

John Vincent Olmos, i like your logo

He wasn't technically in on the coup

afraid

@@Ghostkilla773 I watch the movie and I think he in on the coup and support it but did not know the planned of the coup

In reality Malenkov pressed the button himself, apparantly after Beria questioned him on what was going on.

“He’s got a knife by his ankle.”

Yes but political rivals stood at his way and he’s already seen the horrors of war. He doesn’t need more stress by entering politics. The good man just wanted to enjoy life afterwards. Was a close friend with Eisenhower and Ike sent him a fishing pole because Zhukov loved to fish. It was said he used the fishing pole Eisenhower gifted him for the rest of his life.

Grant didn't seize power in this soviet manner though, he was mild mannered and was propped up due to how unpopular Andrew Johnson was, if the Soviet system was close enough to the American one (where the leadership didn't have actual targets on their heads), then I'm sure Zhukov would have put more effort into being the leader.

He have no interest in ruling. He have the bearing of sovereign but decided to not use it. He was content seeing his soldiers fed and live well.

This is nothing but a wet dream of the west. You can think whatever you want about Zhukov as a military officer, but at the end of the day, he was part of that regime, and his loyalty is still to the communist party. In fact, Zhukov was even a more hard-line communist than Khrushchev. I mean, he was literally one of a few people in the leadership who supported military intervention in Hungary from the beginning, even when people like Khrushchev were skeptical. At the end of the day, the fact Zhukov was a communist just like the rest of them and although it would be interesting from a historical perspective having him as a leader of the Soviet Union, nothing much would change in terms of Soviet domestic policy or foreign policy.

@@failtolawl JFK and Lincoln: Am i a joke to you?

You gotta be shitting me, to call this spiteful caricature disgrace of Goebbelsian-like propaganda a "masterpiece".

@@maladetts get a grip its a film

@@wtw1427 I very well know it's a trash travesty film, and not a painting. Go sober up before giving unnecessary reminders.

@@maladetts alright little Stalinist, cant cope with someone taking the piss out of you beloved ussr?

@@maladetts Pretty sure Goebel's job was to make the common man target another group of common men. This targets elite and alludes to the abuses of the elite onto the common. Very different. Besides, Stalin's regime was a travesty, just as Lenin figured it would be.

*picturing

says the dude who did nothing to make it happen

@KingArthurII The one thing? What, was the genocide of Ukrainians, political dissidents, and the middle class not enough?

@@magmat0585 this response is gold

That's the best part, the way he just casually says it and the soldier just nods without question, like: "Yo, no prob."

@@magmat0585 the Ukrainian part of that is extremely relevant now

i just noticed he was another marshal of the soviet union.

@@aikonoklas and not just any Marshal of the Soviet Union, but his army group beat Zhukov's army group into Berlin by a day - thanks to the gross incompetence of Feldmarschall von Schörner, a dyed-in-the-wool favorite and suckup to Hitler, and his army group immediately collapsing before Konev's army group, while the actual badass Wehrmacht general, Generaloberst Heinrici, despite being hopelessly outmanned, outgunned, and undercut by Hitler transferring most of his tanks to von Schörner, held his line for three days (thanks in part to a couple tactical mistakes Zhukov made), before von Schörner's army group's collapse and Zhukov's resource advantages broke his army group.

@@theokamis5865 Zhukov was hardly a sophisticated military strategist. His favored method was overwhelming superiority of troops and equipment and barrel through the enemy. When he got creative, it backfired. At the beginning of the Battle for Berlin, Zhukov was opposite the Seelow Heights. The Germans pulled back to positions on the Heights, so when Zhukov unleashed his artillery barrage, all it really did was create a smoke screen. Zhukov then had the idea to shine searchlights at the enemy lines with the hope of blinding them. The light reflected off the smoke and disoriented the Red Army. Subsequently, because of his impatience, his attack bogged down.

If you haven't seen "In The Loop" yet, it's the same creator and if you loved this, you will love that as well.

@@FloraWest Thanks. I'll watch it.

Beria was like Stalin's Iron fist

@@danghoangluong2942 more like rabid dog, one even his owner was aware of how dangerous a mongrel he was.

@@danghoangluong2942 "My Himmler"-Stalin

Except the deaths did not stop. East German uprising, Poznan' protests, The Hungarian Revolution, to name a few. And Gulags and Siberian prison colonies still continued even to this day Though they are not called Gulags anymore.

Yeah, watch Death of Stalin and imagine the same stuff is still going on in the Kremlin today.

I absolutely love that they decided go over the top with how badass and masculine he is because in the case of Zhukov it really fits. You can actually go over the top there and don't look silly. And his hatred and strong desire to personally arrest Beria so on point!

NKVD, it's like SS or If democrats\cia in merica do their own army

Something from the first pages of the graphic novel, I imagine.

And she’s one of the lucky ones. They found a lot of bodies when they eventually tore down Beria’s house

Yup. Prigozhin was an idiot. This is why all coups should start with you IMMEDIATELY securing the ruling office/building. Grab the heads of state, lock them up somewhere, and make sure they can’t send messages or make announcements without you standing off to the side pointing a gun or crossbow at them. Prigozhin didn’t have anyone in the Kremlin who was willing to act on his behalf.

I said that going into a police station, it didn’t end up well.

what was he saying as he enter the room ?

If he can beat the nazis he doesn't care what that idiot says

Especially considering how cruel and powerful Beria was for decades, and how credible such threats were, right up to less than a minute before that threat was uttered.

He actually says “Not *with* that you won’t”, not only does he give no fucks, he’s mocking Beria’s ankle holstered letter opener 😂

Well the threats of a corpse aren't really worth much.

Wtf i didn't realize that was Lucius until I saw your comment hahaha

When "Wait till my father hears of this" is a legitimate threat and not an angsty rich boy who's never had to work a day in his life

I wouldn't go that far, Tukhachevsky was a brutal man and very militaristic, but I don't think he got any enjoyment from watching men die. He was just desensitized to it, he was more interested in women than any sort of edgy death streak.

Beria had nothing to do with his death though. When Beria came to power, Tukhachevsky had already been dead for more than a year.

To be fair, he was talking about the Red Army...

@@Shadowman4710 which is infamously one of the worst in every regard except size.

@@Archedgar Hungarian Revolt, hello. And the initial successes in Afghanistan. (Though they don't count much since the Yanks were sore loosers and funded the Rebels, like the USSR funded the VC)

@@marseldagistani1989 That's cute, leftist. Let me know if you have an actual counter-argument though. The socialists (leftists) were/are shit at everything but especially military whether stalin or hitler.

Frankly, Zhukov's one of the reasons the army even bloody worked back then.

In his memoir Zhukov describes arrest of Beria with deep satisfaction. Man took that mission with absolute readiness.

No chance. Zhukov would not trust you - NKVD was a soviet SS merged with FBI, they would have send you into the gulag, or killed you on sight.

Not those three. They were all mid to high tier and so had a death warrant now. The guards at the gates would have been fine

William Shakespeare 26 April, 1564 - 23 April, 1616