History Film / TheDeathOfStalin

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* HundredPercentAdorationRating:
** Svetlana is beloved by the people; Khrushchev and Beria both hastily attempt to monopolize her to aid their grabs for power.[[note]]In RealLife, the KGB strongly considered assassinating her after she defected, but aside from the fact that it would be a PR blunder for the USSR, she still was, after all, Stalin's beloved daughter.[[/note]]
** Zhukov is hailed as a war hero by the public, to the point where he can give a beating to Stalin's own son without any fear of consequences.

* FreakierThanFiction: in several instances, the surreal events which took place in real life had to be toned down to prevent the story from seeming too farcical. For instance, whereas in the film Radio Moscow gets one replacement conductor at short notice, in real life they had to summon ''two'', as the first replacement turned up too drunk to go on.

** A case of FreakierThanFiction: this version of Beria's trial is 'more' dignified than accounts of his real execution, wherein he allegedly crawled on his hands and knees and sobbed into the dirt.

** A case of StrangerThanFiction: this version of Beria's trial is 'more' dignified than accounts of his real execution, wherein he allegedly crawled on his hands and knees and sobbed into the dirt.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Beria getting his comeuppance.
--> '''Malenkov:''' ''(to Zhukov)'' Give his head a good kicking.

* BecomingTheMask: Everyone to an extent when it comes to grieving Stalin's death and supporting his tyranny. While some of the overwrought displays of grief are clearly intended for those around them, for some, like Malenkov and especially Molotov, there seems to be a genuine sense of something like StockholmSyndrome driving them to emotion far beyond what they should feel towards a monster that terrorised them and killed people they loved.

* StockholmSyndrome: Vyacheslav and Polina Molotov suffer from this, possessing genuine loyalty to Stalin despite everything he's done to them (and planned to do to them). Disturbingly, this is TruthInTelevision: they remained ardent Stalinists for the rest of their lives, staunchly defending all of his actions and viciously criticizing his successors, especially Khrushchev.

* KlingonPromotion: Played with; Stalin's death opens up his job position, but none of the Politburo are suggested to be involved in his death (although in RealLife, certain conspiracy theories persist and Beria claimed to have poisoned Stalin, though this should be taken with a pinch of salt). Furthermore, while Beria is executed by the other members, he isn't actually in charge at that point, he's just been trying to turn Malenkov into a PuppetKing with him acting as TheManBehindTheMan. It's also implied that the other members of the Politburo, ruthless and scheming though they are, would normally be perfectly fine with securing the promotion by shunting the previous boss to a humiliating trophy position far away from the levers of power, but are making a special case for Beria because he's too dangerous and psychotic to let live.

* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: On discovering Stalin, the Politburo spend a few moments fretting over the fact that not only is their (supposedly) beloved leader lying comatose "in a puddle of his own indignity", but due to Stalin's most recent purges having targeted doctors there are no competent ones available to tend to them. They eventually realise, however, that this particular crisis can become an opportunity, since any doctor capable of rescuing Stalin in his current condition can by definition be considered a good doctor, and if they're incapable of doing so then Stalin will never know anyway, leaving the pathway open for them to take over without having to worry about his revenge:

* OpinionFlipFlop: Zhukov and Molotov insist that Khrushchev needs all of Presidium on-board with ousting Beria. But by the time it happens, no one cares whether or not Malenkov agrees to it.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Zhukov. He doesn't have much to gain by helping out Kruschev in his coup[[note]]being a revered and beloved national hero as well as head of the Red Army, he is arguably only really outranked by the premier himself[[/note]], he seemingly does it because he hates Beria's guts, but, most importantly, because Beria is an absolute monster and Zhukov doesn't want him in charge.

* NotQuiteDead: Seems to make a miraculous recovery from his brain haemorrhage. The rest of the Politburo have mixed feelings about this, particularly Beria, who's absolutely ''terrified'' his boss will recover to see what he's been doing in the meantime. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, Stalin's recovery doesn't last long.

* ATruceWhileWeGawk: The Presidium's plotting is briefly put on hold when they watch the coroners [[{{Squick}} open Stalin's head and reveal his skull]], with all of them (even [[TheSociopath Beria]]) being understandably grossed out by the sight.

--->'''Isaacs:''' Because Zhukov is so blunt and so direct and so rude, I did a Yorkshire accent, which, in Britain, is shorthand for "don't fuck with me."

** Zhukov's ChestOfMedals is already pretty extreme, until you see [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/3e0c49d8b2985d7dc3fe17c946ccf0aa/tumblr_p7p9q91RHP1rk0k4co1_1280.jpg this real life portrait]], and it gets better when you realize the real man wore nearly twice as many. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjelaagmvSk According to Jason Isaacs]], [[PragmaticAdaptation this was the maximum amount of medals they could fit on his chest – Zhukov actually was slightly wider up top, giving him the space to fit all his awards]].

** Khrushchev runs to Stalin's dacha wearing a suit over his pajamas. It doesn't take long for Beria to mock him for it.

* KlingonPromotion: Played with; Stalin's death opens up his job position, but none of the Politburo are suggested to be involved in his death (although in RealLife, certain conspiracy theories persist and Beria claimed to have poisoned Stalin, though this should be taken with a pinch of salt). Furthermore, while Beria is executed by the other members, he isn't actually in charge at that point, he's just been trying to act as a PuppetKing to Malenkov. It's also implied that the other members of the Politburo, ruthless and scheming though they are, would normally be perfectly fine with securing the promotion by shunting the previous boss to a humiliating trophy position far away from the levers of power, but are making a special case for Beria because he's too dangerous and psychotic to let live.

* OpinionFlipFlop: Zhukov and Molotov insist that Khruschchev needs all of Presidium on-board with ousting Beria. But by the time it happens, no one cares whether or not Malenkov agrees to it.

* ChestOfMedals: Zhukov has a lot of medals, all well-earned. [[note]] The real Zhukov had even more medals than Jason Isaacs' costume, but they couldn't fit all of them on his chest, as Zhukov was wider in the chest and shoulders than him. [[/note]]

* ChestOfMedals: Zhukov has a lot of medals, all well-earned. [[note]] The real Zhukov had even more medals than Jason Isaacs' costume, but it was toned down. [[/note]]

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThis: At one point, it is revealed that the medical devices that Stalin is being hooked up to in order to try and revive him are American-made, which causes some consternation as this is something which hardly speaks highly of Soviet medicine. After some back-and-forthing about exactly which doctor is responsible for getting the machines in, it is quickly agreed that everyone will just (for the time being at least) pretend that this revelation never happened.

** Maria, while a staunch anti-Stalinist who has legitimate reasons for Stalin's hatred (namely, having her own family purged), is all too happy to take bribe money, even if she did donate it to her parish.

* BlatantLies: Subverted by Vasili. He claims he is [[NeverMyFault in no way responsible for the hockey team air crash]] (which he wasn't), but his failed cover-up of the accident just ''reeks''.

* {{Bookends}}: The film begins and ends during a concert at the Radio Moscow theater studio, with Maria Yudina as featured soloist.