The Amsterdam Stalinlaan proudly bore its name for ten years, until the Hungarian uprising of 1956 convinced the city’s council that naming a street after one of history’s most notorious mass murderers – estimates vary from 20 to 50 million victims – was bad p.r.

Arte channel aired Sergei Loznitsa’s  ‘State Funeral’, a montage of archive footage of Stalin’s funeral in Moscow in 1953. Its absurd pomp, lasting four days, is contrasted with the sullen images of mourning Russians in their thousands.

It also triggers a feeling of déjà vu amongst movie buffs: this is the sending off of a Major Mobster, the ceremony that portrays the change of power from Vito Corleone to his son Michael.

All the major players are there. Tessio is plotting to kill the pretender only to meet an untimely end; fat Clemenza ready to do the new Don’s bidding. The NKVD, Stalin’s terror police, stand guard in their blue caps, as the masses shuffle past, sniffing and wailing tot he tones of Mozart’s Requiem.

​NKVD chief Beria, wearing the Mafia’s wide brimmed hat, is one of the coffin bearers, and will be executed that same year. Nikita Chruschov, shrewdly making his move, introduces the new leaders on the pedestal. Molotov, architect of the deal with Hitler 15 years before, is there, as are Mikoyan and Malenkov.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSvGX6syd_8
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