Film / The Death of Stalin

Leadership is up for grabs.

"Stalin would be loving this."

— Vyacheslav Molotov

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 period comedy-drama directed by Armando Iannucci, based on a French graphic novel.

Moscow, 1953. Josef Stalin has ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for three decades. The people live in constant fear of his state apparatus, which routinely arrests them in the middle of the night. His minions are ass-kissers out to save their own skin, turning against anyone they need to in order to survive and stay in his good graces. And then, he dies. In the aftermath, a power vacuum opens up and the remaining members of the Presidium (the governing body) aggressively manipulate, backstab, and plot against each other to figure out the Succession Crisis. This includes:

• Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), Stalin's deputy.
• Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), Stalin's advisor.
• Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), Stalin's head of the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police-cum-intelligence-agency.
• Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin), Stalin's minister of foreign affairs, recently fallen out of favour.
• Nikolai Bulganin (Paul Chahidi), Minister of Defense.
• Anastas Mikoyan (Paul Whitehouse), Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers.
• Lazar Kaganovich (Dermot Crowley), Minister of Labour.

Also appearing in the film are Andrea Riseborough as Stalin's daughter Svetlana, Rupert Friend as his son Vasily, Olga Kurylenko as a pianist with a grudge against the dictator, Paddy Considine as the director of Radio Moscow, and Jason Isaacs as Georgy Zhukov, Stalin's most victorious general and the man who took Berlin.

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This film includes examples of:

Tropes A-M

• 0% Approval Rating: Beria is a bullying, murdering, raping, unholy monster of a man. When the surviving Politburo turns on him, nobody cares what happens to him.
• Acquitted Too Late: A condemned man is shot in the forehead right as a messenger arrives to announce that today's executions have been cancelled and that the prisoners are to be released. The expression on the prisoner next to him, who was spared from death by a few seconds, cannot be described.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Stalin is so amused by Maria Zadina's audacity in slipping him the note with the record, that he suffers his fatal stroke laughing.
• Adaptational Name Change: A minor one. Polina Zhemchuzhina, the wife of Vyacheslav Molotov, kept her maiden name and didn't adopt her husband's surname. In the movie, she is refered as Polina Molotova.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: In real life, the power struggles and purges that erupted after Stalin's death played out over several months, whereas in the film, they appear to take place over a week at most. Lampshaded in one of the film's last lines of dialogue, where Mikoyan remarks that it's been a very busy week and he's exhausted.
• Adapted Out:
  • In real life Beria was married to a woman named Nina Gegechkori, but she's not seen or mentioned at all in the film; neither are Beria's six associates who were put on trial with him.
  • One of the main reasons why Khrushchev and the others finally decided to move against Beria, the East German Uprising of 1953, is neither mentioned nor referred to.
  • Lydia Timashuk appears briefly in the film, but the subplot in the graphic novel is removed, identifying her as the main informant behind the Doctors' Plot and Beria ordering her to assemble a list of "reliable" doctors who can be called to treat Stalin after his stroke. When she demurs, he reminds her that he knows full well that she ratted out her perfectly innocent superiors for not giving her a promotion, and he can "re-examine" the merits of her "evidence" at any time.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: During his show trial, Beria winds up begging Khrushchev, Malenkov, and Zhukov for mercy. They have none.
• The Alcoholic: Vasily is seldom seen sober, and can be relied upon to make any situation he's in worse. (In Real Life, he drank himself to death, croaking two days before his 41st birthday in 1962.)
• Alliterative Name: Svetlana Stalina. Though she did not actually use this name.
• All There in the Manual: The credits reveal that some extras with no lines are also playing historical characters. For example, the bald guy that helps Zhukov arrest Beria is General Ivan Konev, the Chinese representative at Stalin's funeral is Zhou Enlai, and the man with the impressive eyebrows who was also helping Zhukov, requests the 'tall blonde' when Zhukov doles out his smuggled-in firearms and is seated behind Khrushchev (and eyeing him darkly) in the final shot, is Leonid Brezhnev, who would later stage a coup against Khrushchev and replace him as General Secretary.
• Almost Dead Guy: Subverted; Stalin says nothing of consequence when he briefly regains consciousness before dying. The members of the Presidium do make a valiant but hopelessly confused attempt to decode some patriotic message from him waving his hand vaguely in the direction of a painting, then never mention it again.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Attempted by Malenkov after Beria blatantly threatens the Politburo. It doubles for how he is blinding himself to reality, and that he really is as spineless and stupid as everyone thinks he is.
  He said "all of you!"
  "Exactly! "All of you!"
• And Starring: Jeffrey Tambor gets this distinction in the closing credits.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Malenkov still insists on giving Beria a fair trial while the latter is being dragged to the Kangaroo Court and subsequent execution. Khrushchev responds with this:
  "What about Tukhachevsky? And Pyatakov? Did they get a fair trial? What about Sokolnikov, who begged [Beria] to look after his elderly mother and what does this monster do? He strangles her in front of him! It's too late! The only choice we have is between his death and his revenge."
• Artistic License – History: Has its own page.
• Artistic License – Military: Through the movie, Zhukov is always referred as the Field Marshal, a title which didn't exist in the Soviet Union. The highest rank Zhukov obtained was the Marshal of the Soviet Union.
• Asshole Victim:
  • It's unlikely anyone will be feeling too sorry for Beria when he loses the power games and is summarily executed.
  • There's also very little danger of genuine pathos as Stalin departs this life. Everyone close to him fakes uncontrollable grief in each other's presence, though.
• At Least I Admit It: The only remotely redeeming quality Beria has. Beria makes zero attempt to pretend he is anything other than an utterly sociopathic, amoral, power-hungry bastard (well, if they're not a relatively insignificant Soviet citizen he needs to win over within the next five minutes...or Malenkov), and happily mocks the other Politburo members trying to present themselves as good, honest people.
• The Backwards Я: Stalin's shooting lists at the beginning are written in fake Cyrillic.
  • Also the typeface used on the movie poster, where a the Latin "A" is replaced by the Cyrillic "D".
  • Faux-Cyrillic appears throughout the movie as a sort of easter-egg, including on the vynil recording machine at the very beginning, the large flower bouquets at the funeral, and many other places even more low-key than that. No actual Russian has been used anywhere in the movie.
• Badass Boast: Everyone fears Beria, save Zhukov.
  Zhukov: I fucked Germany. I think I can take a flesh lump in a fucking waistcoat.
• Bad Boss: Stalin has numerous underlings slaughtered and Beria carries it out, and Beria has no trouble executing his own people on a whim either, the stand-out example being having a man sent to death for stuttering. Everyone else is willing to have subordinates executed to save their own skin as well, but Beria takes the cake, as he shows the least amount of hesitation and is the one who actually organises the executions.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The ridiculously indecisive Malenkov choosing his official portrait.
    Malenkov: I would like...that one destroyed.
  • The second conductor is awoken by a loud banging on his door. He looks out the window and sees the NKVD arresting people in the building opposite. He then reassures his wife to cooperate fully and tell them anything they want to hear, along with saying he loves her. Then he opens the door and it's only someone from Radio Moscow telling him that he's needed. He is still uneasy when he sees the NKVD continuing to arrest people.
  • Zhukov trolls Khrushchev when the man brings him into the plot against Beria, threatening to have him arrested for treason before laughing at his shocked reaction and revealing that he's just kidding.
  • Beria's conversation with Molotov's wife is framed in a way that makes viewers believe he is interrogating a male prisoner, then to one of his underage rape victims. Molotova is presumably neither, but knowing Beria, it isn't beyond doubt that he tortured or raped her in the past.
• Bald of Evil: While none of the prominent characters are good people, Beria may be the most loathsome of the lot, and is bald.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: When Beria is arresting the staff of Stalin's dacha en masse, he picks out one particularly pretty, blonde, underage maid. In the NKVD dungeons, he tells his mooks to "have her washed." We then see a scene where Beria, the loathsome creep, is bringing flowers to the girl in her cell, although the film mercifully cuts away before he rapes her (something the graphic novel doesn't do).
• Batman Gambit: Beria constantly manipulates people by finding their weak points and steering them into doing his bidding by playing to their character flaws or personalities. This ultimately works against him with the film's bizarreness such as when he returns Molotov's wife to win his loyalty only for Molotov to cite that as a reason he's turned against Beria as he was undoing what Stalin had done. At the end his reliance on blackmail as a crutch ends up doing him in as such a direct threat of force intended to keep them in line has them all turn against him.
• Becoming the Mask: 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 Stockholm Syndrome driving them to emotion far beyond what they should feel towards a monster that terrorised them and killed people they loved.
• Betrayal by Offspring: At the beginning of the film, when the NKVD is rounding up people, an agent asks a teenage boy where his father is, he sheepishly responds that he's in their apartment, and when he's dragged out, the look of pain on his face says it all, not that his son is happy about what he did. Later, when Beria orders a halt to the executions, the man is spared seconds before he's killed and sent home. In their apartment, the look of betrayal is still there, and his son tries not to make eye contact out of shame.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Khrushchev is initially so blatantly awful at his plotting that Beria assumes he's already sitting on the throne. Needless to say, his assumption proves horribly wrong for himself.
• Bilingual Bonus: Apparently, Malenkov's "No(,) problem" gaffe is a reference to a Russian phrase that can either mean "Pardon. Impossible to execute," or "Pardon impossible. Execute.", while containing the exact same words in the exact same order.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: All of the characters jockeying for power after Stalin's death are not just ruthless bureaucrats but killers, people who happily participated in the judicial murder of their friends and colleagues in the 1930s and after. But Beria, who kidnaps young women and rapes and murders them, who abuses children, who takes obvious delight in the torturing and killing of the innocent, is in his own league as far as evil goes. No one is sorry to see him go.^note In Real Life, Beria wanted to end the Cold War, offer several satellite bloc nations autonomy, and strike an alliance with the wealthy United States; however, it was mostly for his own self-interests, and not out of strong feelings of generosity and liberty. And he was a notorious rapist, to the point that Stalin almost had him killed once for being in the same building as Svetlana (Beria kept his hands to himself, but only because he feared The Boss’s wrath).
• Black Comedy: Much of the movie, though it recognises that many of these events are beyond comic territory. The scramble for power in the wake of Stalin's death is played for farcical comedy like some pitch-black version of The Office.
• Blackmail Backfire: Beria. He basically had everyone on the purge lists, and kept incriminating files on everyone in power, assuming that would protect him. Instead, it made him too dangerous to be left alive. That, plus his personal depravity made it possible to unite the Presidium against him.
• Blatant Lies: Subverted by Vasily. He claims he is in no way responsible for the hockey team air crash (which he wasn't), but his failed cover-up of the accident just reeks.
• Blind Obedience: How every lower level servant, soldier, underling and even regular civilian treats Stalin even after his death. Most of the Central Committee Members pay lip service to Stalin, save for Malenkov and especially Molotov, who assumes he must have deeply wronged Stalin somehow after being told his name was on the list of targets to liquidate. Molotov's own wife is crestfallen at the news of his death; Beria finds the irony of this extremely amusing, as Stalin ordered her death and she had been languishing in prison for years because of him.
• Body Double: When Beria's men are rounding up Stalin's household staff after Stalin's death, they include a group of body doubles of varying degrees of visual similarity. One officer dryly notes that they're all out of a job now.
• Bookends: The film begins and ends during a concert at the Radio Moscow theatre studio, with Maria Yudina as featured soloist.
• Boom, Headshot!:
  • A lot of people get killed in this manner, with their last words often being "Long live Stalin!"
  • Beria is killed this way, begging for his life^note in real life, Beria’s executioners stuffed a rag in his mouth to shut him up before shooting him in the face.
• Brick Joke:
  • The two soldiers who guard Stalin's study remain at their post even after the dear leader is dead. They're finally relieved when the NKVD begins to rapidly take down everything inside the dacha. And then they're shot.
  • After Vasily is permitted to give a speech at his father's funeral, Beria derisively says that he'll be allowed to garble out a few words before the Presidium interrupts him with the air show. Sure enough, this is exactly what happens.
  • Malenkov once casually mentions that he likes to make direct eye contact with nearby guards when he's taking a leak, just to "ruin their day". Later, when the Politburo hides out in the Kremlin's toilet, Zhukov notices a portrait of Malenkov on the wall and quips, "Fuck me, Georgy's eyes really do follow you around the crapper".
• Bullying a Dragon: In a scramble to consolidate his power, Beria replaces many of the Red Army's stations with his loyal NKVD agents. This royally pisses off Field Marshal Zhukov, aka the one man who has enough men and firepower to fight Beria's takeover. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't end well for Beria.^note In reality, Stalin knew that the only thing between him and absolute power was the Red Army, and had five of eight generals executed for "disloyalty" in the 1930's.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes":
  • When Stalin's son states he wants to speak at his father's funeral, Malenkov says "No problem." Khrushchev then interjects and Malenkov says he meant "No, problem," as in that doing so would be an issue.
  • Molotov's speech is a masterclass in this.
• Cacophony Cover Up: In several scenes, such as at Molotov's apartment and in a car, noises are used to drown out discussions between colluding characters so that neither bugs or spies can hear.
• The Caligula: Stalin.
• Call-Forward: Khrushchev gets one for his most famous quote upon watching Beria's burning corpse:
  Khrushchev: I will bury you in history! You hear me, you fat fucker?
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Malenkov. When Stalin's inner circle is clowning around during dinner for Stalin's amusement, Khrushchev tells an anecdote about terrifying German prisoners with live grenades during the war just to entertain themselves - to which Georgy breaks in to ask what the grenade "was", showing he doesn't get the inherent humor and thinks it was something "funny" instead of just a normal grenade. Later, Beria stuffs a tomato in Khrushchev's pocket to distract from Malenkov bringing up Polnikov, leading to a performative chest-bumping match while the other men laugh and clap; Malenkov, trying to get in on the fun after he hears Beria mention the "grenade story" again, swipes another tomato, says, "Take this, you bastards!" and mimes biting at it like he's pulling out a grenade pin with his teeth. The lingering laughter dies.
• Cape Swish: General Zhukov, the last major character introduced in the film, appears about halfway through, ostentatiously throwing off his greatcoat in a Slow Motion shot accompanied by a crescendo of dramatic music.
• The Chessmaster: Khrushchev plays a pretty effective game of speed chess against Beria. The whole Presidium hates Beria, but no one will move against him without unanimity, so he corners them, one by one, and convinces each member that everyone else has already agreed to get rid of Beria. Only Malenkov continues to dither, so Kruschev proceeds with Beria's arrest anyway, trusting that Malenkov's spinelessness will prevent him from doing anything to stop them. At that point, Malenkov realises that Beria has to be executed or he'll come after all of them, so he quietly goes along with it.
• Chest of Medals: 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.
• Chekhov's Gun: Subverted. Beria has a boot knife, as shown in the scene where he raids Stalin's office, but he gets disarmed by Zhukov's crew thanks to a tip-off from Malenkov before he can actually stab anyone with it.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Vasily's drinking problem leads him to a vast conspiracy theory and yells at the foreign delegation that the Americans are behind it. Until Zhukov punches him.
  • Svetlana seems a great deal saner than her brother at first, but has her moments, such as her apparent conviction that Beria can 'literally' bring someone back from the dead. Whether this is just staggering naivete or she's snapped from the stress is left to the viewer.
  • Molotov has shades of this but he could be a case of Obfuscating Stupidity as he encourages the coup against Beria and seems very clear about what is going on, even if he does go to the toilet in the middle of it.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the NKVD agents wear peaked caps with blue brims while regular Soviet Army soldiers have caps with green brims.
• The Coup: Khrushev and Zhukov's coup against Beria serves as the climax of the film, after half of the second act and much of the third is spent showing how Khrushev was able to get the support from the presidium and the Red Army necessary to pull it off.
• Crazy-Prepared: Stalin didn't just protect his lists with a safe. The key for it was locked away, and the key for that was also locked away. Beria has to hastily go through all of them at Stalin's death to get to the lists.
• Credits Gag: The teenage girl that Malenkov compares to an ostrich is credited as "Teenage Ostrich Girl."
• Crocodile Tears: Almost all of the ministers, especially Khrushchev ("what a calamity!"), make half-hearted and exceedingly unconvincing displays of grief upon seeing Stalin's prostrate body, unable to contain their relief that he's dying. Even Malenkov, who was Stalin's kiss-ass, blubbers to the point the other Politburo members just stare at him. The only two who don't are ironically the ones who relied on him most for job security - Beria, who immediately shifts into damage control mode and begins burning and looting the old man's files, and early supporter Kaganovich, who just mutters "shit", immediately knowing what a circus the Politburo is going to become.
  Beria: [Snidely] Compelling drama, gentlemen, but we do need to get him into bed.
• Crushing the Populace: Stalin's regime rests on the idea that he can have anyone killed at any time.
• Decadent Court: Even before Stalin's death, the circle that made up his regime has been known to betray and eliminate any rivals for their own cause. Of course, with his death, it got turned up to eleven.
• Deadpan Snarker: Several characters, among them Khrushchev, Kaganovich, even Svetlana, but especially Zhukov, who makes jabs and jibes to basically everyone:
  • To Malenkov, after seeing his new hairstyle: "Did Coco Chanel take a shit on your head?"
  • He expresses his distaste for the NKVD by telling one of them that he’s so handsome Zhukov would consider banging him if he wore a dress. When the NKVD guy awkwardly replies that he'll take that as a compliment, Zhukov sneers, "Yeah, don’t."
  • To the other funeral attendees: "I'm off to represent the entire Red Army at the buffet. You girls enjoy yourselves."
  • When he and the Presidium are ineffectually threatened by Svetlana after Vasily is floored Zhukov replies "Well, that's me told".
• Denser and Wackier: Downplayed, but there are a lot more funny moments in this than in the graphic novel it's adapted from. Also Ruder and Cruder, as would be expected from the creator of The Thick of It.
• Destroy the Evidence: Before the other committee members arrive, Beria goes through Stalin's safe to destroy the departed leader's execution lists and replace them with Beria's own.
• Die Laughing: Stalin laughs hysterically as he reads the note Maria Yudina put in the record, causing a hemorrhage that kills him.
• Dirty Commies: Lots of scheming and in-fighting by members of the Soviet Presidium.
• The Ditherer: Malenkov is spineless, agreeing with whoever's leaned on him most recently, and even when nobody is leaning on him, frequently second-guesses his own decisions.
• The Ditz: Malenkov. The guy is so indecisive and weak-willed he could barely even choose which painting he want to use to depict him.
• Doomed New Clothes: Mikoyan complains bitterly about getting Stalin's urine all over his new suit — which had required three fittings — as they carry Stalin to his bedroom.
• The Dragon: Malenkov may have been the official second-in-command, but Beria is the man responsible for actually carrying out the purges and spycraft that made Stalin's rule both so ironclad and so terrifying (even for his rivals, something they haven't forgotten), and with an eye on invoking Dragon Ascendant he quickly makes sure he commands the only men at arms within Moscow.
• Dramatic Drop: Svetlana drops Vasily's flask when Beria tells her that Aleksei is dead.
• Dramatic Irony: As the Presidium leave Stalin's Dacha, Beria bids Molotov goodbye and tells Khrushchev and Malenkov he's on the list, forcing them to wave him off too knowing it's very likely the last they'll see of him. A similar situation happens at the end: As the Presidium come back from the funeral, all of them (especially Molotov) are careful to laugh along with Beria after it's been decided to have him killed.
• Epic Fail: Vassily. Almost every scene he is in shows him failing to do something. Coaching hockey, giving a speech, taking a gun from a guard, shouting that he will not be put down or silenced in the middle of being dragged to the floor by the NKVD and silenced by Beria. Spitting at everyone while lying on his back only for it to land on his own forehead.
  • Even his own sister during the aforementioned attempted taking of a guard's gun just looks uncomfortable and smiles at others in embarassment like this is a common occurence.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Stalin's inner circle is pretty diverse for the ruling body of a country that is made up of mostly Russians. While several were ethnic Russians from Russia proper, most of them were from minorities in one way or another.
  • Krushchev was from the Ukraine.
  • Beriya was Georgian (as was Stalin).
  • Kaganovich was Jewish.
  • Mikoyan was Armenian.
  • The whole thing is possibly lampshaded by Malenkov, who at one point tells the Presidium "You can all kiss my Russian ass."
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Beria's first scene is him in the middle of a purge — he shows Stalin a list and then goes to work torturing and overseeing raids.
  • Malenkov's scene is him mentioning an Un-person to Stalin, showing how stupid he is.
  • Khrushchev spends his initial scenes making jokes and keeping Stalin entertained. Then when he gets home, he is making a list with his wife of all the jokes and comments that were made in the night, especially noting whether Stalin laughed or not. This shows him to be a nervy fellow with a calculating will to survive.
  • The first time we see Vasily, he's drunkenly trying to coach a hockey game, denying that he had anything to do with the demise of the national team and panicking about it when officers come in to inform him of his father's condition. Then, as he's being escorted away, he loudly screams that his father will have them sent to to Siberia.
  • Zhukov's entrance. Commiserating and teasing his men, demanding to know where a war hero can get a drink, the above-mentioned The Coats Are Off.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Svetlana's relationship with her father is complicated. He loves her, she loves him, but she also knows he's a monster. Vasily is appalled when he interrupts his father's autopsy.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The main cast are morally bankrupt, self-serving, and responsible for the deaths of who knows how many people, but even they are disgusted by Beria's numerous instances of raping women and children. As it happens, during the approximately one-minute "trial" in which Khrushchev is reading off the charges against Beria, he puts special stress on Beria's habit of raping children as young as seven years old, causing almost everyone present to look appalled or howl for his blood.
  • On a more personal level to the Soviet Leadership, while each of them are willing to back-stab and betray each other for more power and influence, only Beria is noted to go out of his way to have his rivals and their families tortured and killed (by him personally in some cases), whereas the others are content with rivals being demoted and/or humiliated. This is implied to be what ultimately drives them to have him killed, both to avenge their former friends/rivals and to ensure he can never take revenge on them.
  • Malenkov, while no saint, wants Beria to have a fair and decent trial before having him executed. He is very uneasy with the Kangaroo Court the others are ready to arrange to get rid of Beria.
• Evil Chancellor: Pretty much everyone, but especially Beria. After burning a list and issuing a new one to his men, Beria sits down behind Stalin's desk, making it clear that he intends to take over.
• Evil Is Petty: A pervasive theme, right down to the decision to film these terrible & powerful men in the style of The Thick of It.
  • Stalin's status as The Dreaded implies this - people are terrified, to the point of offering enormous bribes, of offending him with even the slightest insult or mistake. Nobody wants to be the last to laugh at his childish jokes or say "no" to his latest whim.
  • The Presidium members will do almost anything to show their dominance or insult people they don't like. However, special mention goes to Beria, who executes a minion for stuttering.
  Malenkov: I like making eye contact with an officer when I'm taking a piss. It completely ruins their day.
  Beria: I like to piss on them.
  • Played for Laughs with the presidium's petty dislike of the Russian Orthodox Church, when their bishops unexpectedly showed up at Stalin's funeral at Beria's invitation.
  Bulganin: Jesus Christ, it's the bishops.
  Kaganovich: I thought we'd banned those freaks.
  Molotov: Sneeze on the bastards as they go past!
  Khrushchev: (On Beria for inviting them) I'm going to give everyone in Red Square a voucher permitting one kick each to his stupid face.
• Evil Power Vacuum: The Movie. Khrushchev and Beria's efforts to outplay the other in the wake of Stalin's untimely death composes the crux of the plot.
• Evil Wears Black: Beria wears a black suit for the majority of the film.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Stalin's son and daughter mourn him after his death.
• Everyone Has Standards: Marshal Zhukov, the person with the least baggage out of the entire Soviet leadership, is shocked and disappointed when Khrushchev reveals he gave the order to let the trains keep coming into Moscow, an act which caused the NKVD troops to massacre them in a panic and killing thousands. (He quickly changes his tune, however, when Khrushchev takes him aside and tells him he plans to oust Beria in a coup with Zhukov's help.)
  Zhukov: What the fuck were you thinking?
  Khrushchev : I don't know, alright?! But I did it. And I really need your help.
  Zhukov: To do what? Bodies' fucking piling up in the streets - it's a bit late, isn't it?
• Exact Words: Malenkhov says that Beria deserves a fair trial, and Khrushchev reassures him that "he'll get a trial." What Beria actually gets is a show trial where the charges are rapidly read out and he's then hauled out and shot.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The film is about the death of Joseph Stalin and what happened afterwards.
• Face Death with Dignity: Almost everyone in the film who gets executed is made to do this, insofar as they all exclaim "Long live Stalin!" before being shot in the head. Completely averted with Beria, who gets shot in the head by a random soldier while being manhandled through a door and begging hysterically for his life.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Beria's is his Pride over running the NKVD. Had he just bit the bullet and allowed his men to be the scapegoats in the civilian massacres, the rest of the Soviet Presidium might not have turned against him. The fact that he was using information on their crimes to try and blackmail them didn't help, either.
  • A secondary candidate for Beria's fatal flaw is his depraved, insatiable lusts, which both go far beyond what even the other members of the Soviet Politburo consider to be the pale, and also give them a perfect and airtight non-political argument for arresting him and putting a bullet in his head.
• Fat Bastard: Beria is a very portly man and extremely unpleasant.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the period will know that Khrushchev becomes the next leader of the Soviet Union.
• Foreshadowing: Zhukov warns that the NKVD will not be able to handle crowds. He is proven gravely right.
• Four-Star Badass: Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
  Zhukov: I fucked Germany. I think I can take a flesh lump in a fucking waistcoat.
• Freeze-Frame Introduction: As each of the major characters is introduced, the scene goes into slow motion for a moment as a caption appears giving the character's name and position. Mostly played for laughs — Khrushchev gets his moment in the middle of a drunken Wimp Fight with Beria, and Bulganin is speaking when he goes into slow-mo, causing his voice to stretch and deepen — although General Zhukov gets a reasonably dramatic (if rather hammy) moment.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": Stalin's grand funeral includes political infighting, a clumsy attempt to move position at the coffin in order to question other people being ignominiously rebuffed, a failed photo op, a disagreement over who the hell invited the bishops, and 1500 ordinary civilians killed when they tried to pay their respects.
• Funny Background Event:
  • All of the background events are horrific, as they are either beatings or just straight-up executions. The iteration and inherent black comedy of its outlandish-yet-plausible nature makes for a very dark Running Gag.
  • The NKVD officer who brings over the little girl for Malenkov's photo op has to awkwardly stand in the background with the girl as the Presidium shouts crass insults at each other. When Malenkov says "All of you can kiss my Russian ass," the embarrassed officer awkwardly shields her eyes with his hand.
  • A minor example occurs when Vasily tells his crazy conspiracy theories to foreign diplomats, and then Khrushchev and Beria enter the room and the former tells the foreign interpreter not to translate any of Vasily's incoherent ramblings.
• Genre Blind: Malenkov really has no self-preservation skills whatsoever. His Establishing Character Moment is mentioning Polnikov to Stalin — someone who's been Unpersoned. He then spends the movie not even aware that he's being played like a fiddle by Beria and Khrushcev.
• Genre Shift:
  • The death of the 1,500 mourners shifts the movie from a comedy about a horrific period, to a drama with some comedic moments.
  • The execution of Beria adopts a hand-held camera, documentary-style.
• Good Is Impotent: Svetlana is one honest major character in the whole film but she has zero ability to affect any kind of change, and is unceremoniously exiled to Vienna.
• Gory Discretion Shot: With the exception of Beria's execution, most of the Boom Headshots happen offscreen.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: Everyone not Beria.
  • Khrushchev is a power-grubbing reformer, who, while genuinely believing in reform, really wants credit for it, and will do anything for it — if it means bullying Malenkov (who himself isn't a saint), underhanded backroom dealing, or outright purging, albeit of Beria and his similarly reprehensible NKVD. He's genuinely livid at Beria's crimes, which motivates him towards the purge — but he is also half-way responsible for the NKVD slaughtering the civilians trying to see Stalin by forcing the trains to reopen when Beria made it clear he still had the city on lock-down, and pins this responsibility wholly on Beria.
  • Malenkov is a dumb ass-kisser who begins aping Stalin's stylings (like slavish attempts to recreate Stalin's photos with himself as the subject), but he's the only one who insists on legitimately giving Beria a fair trial instead of the Kangaroo Court and execution, and wholly believes in the Soviet Union.
  • Like Khrushchev, the others in Stalin's council are quick to grab for power — and when Beria calls them out on it (like supporting the purges), Kaganovich (who had to sign off on his own brother) angrily shouts back that it wasn't an easy decision.
• Grin of Rage: Marshall Zhukov is enraged after finding out that the Red Army (as in his army) has been replaced by the NKVD in Moscow, but judging by his Boisterous Bruiser personality, you wouldn't know it. That is, until he walks up to Beria (the head of the NKVD) and Krushchev to ask them about it. He makes it very clear to them that while he's smiling, he's also very fucking furious.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: Malenkov, Khrushchev, Beria, and Molotov have some very forced laughter whenever Stalin makes a joke. Khrushchev goes so far as to keep a running diary of all the jokes and stories Stalin laughed at, versus all the ones he didn't like.
• Hate Sink: Everyone in the movie is either 1) a very bad man but with some redeeming qualities, 2) working for very bad men, or 3) trying to steal a very bad man's job and power and then have him killed, so it's very hard to dismiss anyone completely as totally evil, and certainly hard to root for anyone. Then there's Beria, who is a loathsome, sociopathic, and disgusting rapist and thus is the one person we can take great pleasure in seeing arrested, tortured, sentenced without a fair trial, and destroyed. This is not an exaggeration by the filmmakers, he really was that loathsome and unpopular in real life (and the film actually toned down his vileness). In reality, Beria's rape habits were so notorious that Stalin flat-out panicked when he realised that his beloved daughter Svetlana was alone in a house with Beria, and sent an NKVD hit squad to the house with orders to shoot Beria on sight if they even suspected he'd laid a finger on Svetlana. Stalin's fears were unfounded, since as awful as he was, Beria was also smart enough to realise exactly what would happen to someone who tried to rape Comrade Stalin's daughter.
• Here We Go Again!: As Beria's corpse burns, Khrushchev both has Stalin's daughter sent away (not far from Stalin deporting people) and thus breaking up yet another family (also what Stalin and Beria did), and after that's done, immediately starts plotting to remove Malenkov. And at the end of the film, long after Khrushchev becomes supreme leader, Leonid Brezhnev is watching him closely during a concert.
• Historical Beauty Upgrade: For the most part, the cast is as average-looking as the ageing diplomats they play, but there are a few examples. Zhukov was a rather plain man who is a far cry from the dashingly handsome Jason Isaacs. Maria Yudina was also fairly average and nowhere close to the ravishing Olga Kurylenko.
• Historical Domain Character: Most of the Soviet politicians in the movie are real people. Pianist Maria Yudina was also a real person.
• Historical Hero Upgrade:
  • Khrushchev's infamous mood swings that contrasted with his jovialness^note which also happened to be a huge reason for his removal by Brezhnev, who used Khrushchev's angry, threatening outbursts and shoe banging at the UN, apparently a result of his provided living quarters being near a busy street that kept waking him up and making him incredibly grouchy, partially as grounds for removing him for being unfit to lead - his bluster and then submitting during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a move wildly seen as chickening out, really did not endear him to anyone are removed, save for his well-justified angry ranting at Beria during his "trial" and execution. Also, moviegoers would likely know that he at least would have an occasional reasonable moment later in his career considering he would be the one who stopped the worst of Stalin's tyrannies and then played a critical one in eventually defusing confrontations with the West during the Cold War like during the Cuban Missile Crisis and kept them from erupting into World War III. In that historical geopolitical context, Khrushchev's succession to leadership of the Soviet Union comes off as the most tolerable of possibilities considering the others.
  • Everyone at Beria's 'trial' is disgusted as Beria is accused of 347 counts of rape and it's a crucial part of condemning him to death; while in real life his sexual crimes did emerge while he was on trial, he wasn't charged for them but rather for treason, terrorism and counter-revolutionary activity.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • After Beria is shot, Khrushchev proclaims "I will bury you in history!", the same phrase he said to Western ambassadors in 1956.
  • Stalin’s funeral opens with an uncharacteristically (at least for Armando Iannucci) opulent montage of the event's set-up. The montage was pioneered by early Soviet filmmakers.
• Historical Relationship Overhaul: Molotov's vicious slandering of his wife behind her back is pure fiction: he never stopped loving her and her arrest deeply upset him, but he was powerless to help her and he knew it. Despite this, he frequently asked Beria about her condition and wrote to her whenever he could (thus putting his own life at risk), and would have his servants cook two meals each night as a personal reminder of her dilemma. Her release was also not arranged by Beria in order to gain leverage over her husband, but was in fact arranged by Molotov himself: at Stalin's funeral, which happened to take place on Molotov's birthday, Malenkov and Khrushchev asked Molotov what he would like for a present, to which he coldly replied, "Give me back Polina," and she was returned to him a week later.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: Beria is a slight example: if anything, the film's portrayal is too generous to him. In real life, he openly gloated over Stalin's body while the other politburo members were weeping, and even had a habit of gloating to fellow party members that he had killed Stalin (he almost certainly did not; scientists did find traces of poison in Stalin's body, but whether it actually caused his death is disputed, and even if it did, it's not all that likely Beria was responsible). Likewise, his rapist tendencies are, if anything, toned down; notably, the fact that he likely serially murdered women who fought back is not mentioned, and his sending women to the gulag if they didn't agree to say the rape was consensual is only hinted at. It also omits the fact that he showed up to Stalin's funeral absolutely blasted drunk and gave a mocking, upbeat speech about how Stalin was "merely sleeping."
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Very slightly played straight in regards to how Molotov treats his wife. The real Molotov was very upset about his wife's arrest and exile, but knew he couldn't do anything about it. As a reminder of her fate, he would have his servants cook two meals each night, and gaze forlornly at the second one while muttering to himself that Polina's situation was all his fault. He was also genuinely delighted to have her back, though he still held a deep grudge against Beria for arresting her in the first place. In the film, while ecstatic to have her back, he later happily and mindlessly slanders her as a traitor to the party cause when Khrushchev manages to turn him against Beria, despite no one caring about the party line at that point.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with fear and terror. Because they are terrified of his reaction, his guards don't bother to check his room when Stalin falls unconscious.
• Hollywood Atheist: Played for Laughs, mostly — the Russian Orthodox bishops keep asking to come to the funeral, and absolutely no one likes them (as is standard for the officially atheist Soviet Union), and only tolerate their presence to both appease the populace and annoy Beria (or Khrushchev) with it, with all the Soviet leaders desperately switching location during the funeral to avoid them. Later, however, in a conversation with Maria, an annoyed Khrushchev dismisses the idea of an afterlife with "Who the fuck would want an everlasting life? The endless conversation..."
• Hope Spot: Inverted. Stalin briefly wakes up from his coma, much to the feigned joy of the committee members. All of them, especially Beria, were secretly shitting their pants over the possibility of Stalin actually recovering — they all knew they'd be purged if he did.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: Beria is in no position to condemn the Kangaroo Court he is subjected to, as he is an unrepentant monster whose crimes undoubtedly warrant capital punishment, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a Kangaroo Court; his accusers are bad people who've committed terrible crimes as well, and despite expressing genuine disgust at his more perverse misdeeds, it's clear that their primary reason for wanting to get rid of him is so he can't kill them first.
• I Did What I Had to Do: By having Beria executed, the Presidium most likely prevented the events after the death of Lenin reoccurring and a new tyrant taking the helm. Of the all members of the Presidium, Beria was most like Stalin.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: When the Radio Moscow orchestra is asked to repeat their performance of the piano concerto specially for Stalin, the pianist declares that she will not do it because she hates Stalin for what he's done to her family and friends. Comrade Andreyev attempts to talk her around, but only succeeds in driving her to declare, with God as her witness, that nothing on Earth could make her agree to perform. Desperate, he offers her a large bribe — and she immediately responds that if he doubles his offer, he's got a deal.
• Incoming Ham:
  • Zhukov's arrival is marked with a bellowed "Right, what’s a war hero got to do to get some lubrication around here?" This is followed by an epic slo-mo The Coats Are Off. Also when he bursts into the Presidium meeting wielding a rifle and threatening to shoot anyone who moves in the "fuckin' face".
  • Vasily is introduced bursting into his father's autopsy, berating the doctors, firing his gun in the air and wrestling with a soldier.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: A rattled Malenkov says "I need a vodka" after all the gang manage to awkwardly pick up Stalin, carry him into his bedroom, and heave him onto the bed. This is Vasily's permanent state.
• Interservice Rivalry: Beria provokes a conflict between the Red Army and NKVD when he transfers city security duties in Moscow to NKVD and confines the Red Army soldiers to their barracks. Needless to say, Zhukov and other Soviet generals don't take it well and later become major participants in the coup against Beria.
• It's Probably Nothing: Stalin's guards at the door hear a thud. One of them asks if they should investigate, but the other says no before they both get killed. Truth in Television. Stalin left explicit orders not to disturb him during his sleep, which is why no one dared to check on him when he didn't get up at the usual time^note there is some debate about this: Stalin trusted his guards completely, thus they could have checked on him if they thought it was an emergency, but it was revealed after his death that they — along with the rest of the staff at his dacha — hated his guts and wanted him to suffer.
• Jitter Cam: Similar to The Thick of It, the film is presented as if it were a documentary at times.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Suffice it to say that the NKVD and the Red Army do not like each other much. There is palpable glee in the army officer's voice when he arrives at NKVD headquarters and announces "The army is back in town".
• Kangaroo Court: While nobody disputes the fact that Beria has done any number of things that could justify executing him, the "court" that sentences him to death is little more than a lynch mob of men equally guilty of crimes against humanity who barely bothered to write the charges down.
• Karmic Death:
  • Stalin had a fatal stroke in his bed chamber with everyone too scared to enter it to find out why he was late getting up until it was far too late for him to survive with any medical intervention, meaning the murderous dictator spent his last hours likely lying in his own urine in agony and in helpless despair before he died; the closest thing to a worthy fate for all his deeds as any of his enemies were going to get.
  • Beria gets this as well. Having built an entire career of dragging thousands of Russians without evidence or trial for execution, Beria himself ends up getting dragged off to a Kangaroo Court on exaggerated accusations (except for the charges of his rapes, which he truly deserved execution) and quickly shot. Making it better is how Beria dies blubbering and terrified.
• Kicked Upstairs: Khrushchev is forced to accept the honor of planning Stalin's funeral, which is transparently a ploy to occupy his time on trivialities and hamstring his efforts to outmaneuver Beria. Kruschev seems legitimately upset at the assignment, but it has the effect of putting him in contact with all the key powerbrokers, both foreign and domestic, at the critical moments after Stalin's death.
• Kick the Dog: Beria. It's not enough to execute someone for him; he wants as much salt poured into the wounds as humanly possible. For example, he tells a subordinate that, when executing someone, to make sure they execute his wife where he can see her before offing him.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: In the gulag, one prisoner gives his last words as "Long live Stalin!" The guard says that Stalin is dead and Malenkov is in charge, to which the prisoner says "Long live Malenk-" before getting shot. Beria as well, although he was bawling rather than talking
• Klingon Promotion: 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 Real Life, 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 Puppet King with him acting as The Man Behind the Man. It's also implied that the other members of the Politburo, ruthless and scheming though they are, would normally be perfectly fine with shunting the previous boss to a humiliating trophy position far away from the levers of power after they've managed to secure the job, but are making a special case for Beria because he's too dangerous and psychotic to let live.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: While a number of NKVD officers have to be hunted down and shot, the officer in command of the guards at their headquarters knows they've lost, and makes sure his men hold their fire and peacefully hand over their weapons to the army.
• Large Ham: Zhukov prefers to dominate attention as much as is humanly possible. Vasily too, but since he's falling-down drunk almost the entire time, he typically makes a mess of it.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Malenkov was chiefly interested in his public image. The last shot of him is his picture being edited out of his own headshot. Welcome to Unpersonhood.
  • Stalin is basically responsible for his own death. Thanks to generating rampant paranoia and being the sole decision-maker of his cabinet, no one dares to check if he's okay when he collapses, and thanks to his purging of competent doctors, there's no one capable of helping him long after his condition has gone unchecked (reminiscient of the ending of To Live, which also had a Communist purging of doctors that leads to death).
  • Beria's horrifying ruthlessness and sadism before and during the events of the film ensure that when he is Out-Gambitted by the other party leaders, there is absolutely no mercy shown to him and he winds up dying much like his many victims, being beaten, humiliated, given a show trial, and coldly executed while he begs for his life.
• Last Disrespects: General Zhukov completes Beria's humiliation, following his Villainous Breakdown and summary execution at the hands of a Kangaroo Court, by soaking his corpse in petrol and setting it alight with a contemptuous Reusable Lighter Toss.
• Last-Minute Reprieve: During the execution scene in the Volga prison, a messenger prevents further bloodshed by delivering Beria's order to release prisoners. This doesn't make the situation better for those prisoners who were shot just a few seconds ago, however.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: 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 him. 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:
  Bulganin: What are people's thoughts on getting a... bad doctor?
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: 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.
• Life Saving Misfortune: Beria lets slip to Malenkov and Khrushchev that Molotov is on the latest kill list. He's saved when Stalin's death prompts Beria to burn the order.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: While Khrushchev and basically everyone except for Beria are still tyrannical power-grubbing jerks who cynically want reforms after the man who wouldn't allow them is dead, they genuinely believe in the reforms - and they're not sadistic rapists like Beria. Notable during Beria's trial and execution — Khrushchev and everyone but Malenkov are furious when Khrushchev announces evidence of Beria having raped hundreds of children. In any case, it should be pointed out that as per real life, most of the central committee members in the film are still Stalinists, but merely lacked his will to carry out purges in the name of pragmatism or power. Khrushchev was a full-on reformist, but still an authoritarian. Mikoyan, by contrast, went with whoever was clearly in power. Zhukov, however, is pretty much the Token Good Teammate of Khrushchev's crew, having not that much baggage on him aside from a few personality quirks and questionable actions in the war.
• Literal Ass-Kissing: Malenkov tells the Presidium members to kiss his Russian ass.
• Long List: Vasily plans to make a speech at his father's funeral. In the speech, he describes the Soviet people as 'cubs', and then starts listing "Russian cubs, Georgian cubs, Latvian cubs..." and keeps listing, apparently intending to list every republic in the USSR. Both times, he gets cut off before he can finish the list.
• Meaningful Background Event: The entire Presidium groans and recoils at Stalin's autopsy. Except Beria, a sadist accumstomed to violence and the one man who most desires to take Stalin's place, who gazes at the sight of the former leader having his head cut open.
• Men of Sherwood: General Zhukov and his soldiers do almost all of the work in the coup against Hate Sink Beria, while Krushchev and the other politicians merely stand poised to conduct a show trial and then step into Beria's shoes. Zhukov and his men succeed almost effortlessly.
• Minor Major Character: General Ivan Konev isn't named, but is the bald soldier assisting Zhukov take out Beria, same with Brezhnev who only comes into focus in the very end. Chinese Communist leader Zhou Enlai also appears just to react to Vasily's drunk behavior.
• Mood Dissonance: Almost the entire point of the movie: by playing the real (and farcically implausible) historical events following Stalin's demise for maximum Cringe Comedy, it turns a violent struggle for power into a petty workplace squabble like something out of Office Space. Meanwhile, thousands of innocent people are being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered as game pieces in the political manoeuvring between some very bad men. It's hysterical.
• Moral Myopia: Despite being both the mastermind (and, in some cases, direct perpetrator) of the torture and murder of countless thousands of innocent people, as well as the entire Gulag system for much of Stalin's reign, and a serial rapist/killer of countless hundreds of women and girls, Beria is absolutely incensed at the mere implication that he is responsible for any wrongdoing in the aftermath of the funeral massacre, immediately throwing a furious tantrum and listing the (far less severe) crimes of the other Soviet leaders as he tearfully demands their respect and gratitude for not exposing their shady pasts. This is seen again in his show trial where he shrieks about how they are all gangsters and tyrants who have no right to judge him (in between begging them not to kill him).
• Morality Pet: Ultimately subverted with Svetlana for the Presidium. Beria and Khrushchev both know that the public loves Stalin's daughter (especially in comparison to his drunkard son Vasily) and both immediately start vying to gain her favour once she arrives. Right after Beria is killed, however, it becomes obvious that she's no longer useful and Khrushchev sends her out of the country.

Tropes N-Z

• Nature Tinkling:
  • Molotov pees outside Stalin's dacha as everyone is leaving.
  • Malenkov takes a piss on a tree while conferring with Beria.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: At Stalin's state funeral, Vasily tries to have a speech about how his father was a father bear to the Soviet Union's 15 republics. However, he's drowned out by the air show partway through, so he awkwardly stops.
  Vasily: My father... was a warm and mighty bear, and we are his 170 million orphaned cubs. Russian cubs! Georgian cubs! Armenian cubs! Lithuanian... [the roar of jets fly over and captivate the audience] …so, Lithuanian cubs, Ukrainian cubs, Moldavian cubs... [stops and shrinks away]
• Never My Fault:
  • Vasily is most definitely not responsible for the plane crash that killed the entire Soviet national hockey team.
  • When 1,500 people are killed by the NKVD for trying to attend Stalin's funeral, Beria blames them for being there against his orders. Khrushchev even calls him out on this.
• Nobody Poops: Averted. Molotov ducks out to drop a deuce in the middle of a coup.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent:
  • Done on purpose. Everyone uses their natural accent or put on a regional accent from their home nation. Armando Ianucci didn't want the film to be bogged down by a slew of fake Russian accents. This leads to an amusing mix of British and American regional accents for the Soviet leadership, including a Yorkshire-accented Zhukov and a Cockney-accented Stalin. (This particularly works with Stalin, who was not Russian but was from the Soviet backwater of Georgia, and spoke with a strong Georgian accent.)
  • Subverted a little with Jason Isaacs, who is originally from Liverpool but chose a Yorkshire accent for a reason.
    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."
• Not Quite Dead: Stalin 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.
• "Not So Different" Remark: During his Villainous Breakdown, Beria rants that everyone in the Presidium has signed off on Stalin's death lists at some point or another.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The director of Radio Moscow when Stalin personally calls him and asks for a recording of the night's performance only to realize that they didn't record it.
  • Then his reaction to the conductor being knocked unconscious. And his reaction to a substantial chunk of the audience departing. And his reaction to the note making its way into the record sleeve.
  • Khrushchev has a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it example of this when recounting his story about Stalingrad, in which he brings up Polnikov and clearly remembers just a second too late that Polnikov has been unpersoned and that bringing him up in front of Stalin isn't a good idea. Luckily for him, Stalin doesn't really seem to pick up on it and he's able to quickly brush past it and move on, only for Malenkov to then dumbly ask what happened to Polnikov, thus drawing Stalin's ire.
  • Stalin himself, when he feels the stroke hitting. ("Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck...")
  • Everyone's reaction to Stalin's death, especially Kaganovich who forsees the ensuing problems with a dull "Oh, shit". Beria, however, has one when Stalin momentarily recovers, as he's already begun plotting to take his place.
  • Vasily's reaction to seeing Zhukov angrily heading towards him in the middle of his rant about the Americans stealing his father's brain at the funeral.
    Vasily: Medic!
  • The reaction of the NKVD troops who come to help Beria when they burst into the room to find several army officers pointing AKs at them.
    NKVD Officer: Sorry, comrades. Wrong room.
  • Beria is snarling and defiant for most of his arrest, but notice how he quickly devolves into Stunned Silence and later desperate, shrieking hysteria when the subject of his numerous sexual crimes comes up. Because Beria might be able to claim some kind of virtuous martyrdom out of the illegitimacy of the proceedings when it comes to political murder and corruption, of which all of the men arresting him are also guilty, but Even Evil Has Standards; they've got him dead to rights when it comes to rape and pedophilia and everyone knows it.
  • Khrushchev's face falls when he thinks Zhukov is going to report his plotting against Beria.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: The movie closes on a small smirk from Leonid Brezhnev aimed at the back of an oblivious Khrushchev as the on-screen text notes that Brezhnev ultimately ousted him.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Svetlana Stalina, who is the only moral and decent person among the crowd of sharks and monsters in Stalin's inner circle.
  • Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who, despite his Chest of Medals, is no buffoon and is very aware of the situation.
  • Of the Central Committee, Khrushchev is this; while he's just as venal and self-serving as the rest, he seems to have greater reserves of common sense than the others. For example, he's utterly flabbergasted when Malenkov in all sincerity argues that they need to have a committee meeting to decide on whether to summon a doctor for Stalin, when Stalin is lying comatose on the floor in front of them drenched in his own piss clearly dying.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Khrushchev sees Malenkov running out of their apartment building in the early morning and realizes that something's up.
• Overcrank: As each of the major characters is introduced, the scene goes into slow motion for a moment as a caption appears giving the character's name and position. Mostly played for laughs — Khrushchev gets his moment in the middle of a drunken Wimp Fight with Beria, and Bulganin is speaking when he goes into slow-mo, causing his voice to stretch and deepen — although Zhukov gets a reasonably dramatic (if rather hammy) moment first showcasing his Chest of Medals.
• Opinion Flip Flop: 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. Though this is partly because everyone gets sick of Malenkov's spineless dithering and just takes matters into their own hands.
• Overly Long Gag: A drunken and enraged Vasily attempts to grab his escort's sidearm but fails and spends several minutes struggling weakly with his escort while everybody else stands around looking awkward.
• Pajama-Clad Hero:
  • Khrushchev runs to Stalin's dacha wearing a suit over his pyjamas. It doesn't take long for Beria to mock him for it.
  • The second conductor at the Radio Moscow concert directs in his sleepwear, as he wasn't given time to even change his clothes.
• The Paragon: Having led the Red Army to victory over the Nazis, Marshal Zhukov is a major source of inspiration and heroism for the Soviet Union, which makes him untouchable as far as political games are concerned. He thus exploits this role in leading the Red Army against the NKVD, which makes him the most valuable member in Khrushchev's team.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Molotov is reunited with his wife after thinking she'd been executed.
  • When Zhukov's men overtake Beria's goons, they find Beria's latest rape victim in a bedroom and take her home, with an officer even telling her that she's safe now.
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: In one scene at NKVD headquarters, Beria and a lieutenant discuss a husband and wife who were recently arrested. The woman offered to do anything if they would let her husband go; Beria says reminiscently that she's done "everything" — and that he intends to have them both killed anyway.
• Plot-Triggering Death: In case the title didn't give it away, Stalin's death kicks off the ensuing power vacuum that encompasses the film's plot.
• Popularity Cycle: Stalin's court is a classic example, with factions flocking behind whomever they find most convenient or seems to be ahead. Beria appears to be winning out because he has so much dirt on everyone...but this actually condemns him to die because He Knows Too Much (and everyone else is disgusted by the fact that he's a rapist of underage girls). Khrushchev ultimately wins and becomes the new Premier, but the film ends with him being suspiciously eyed by people at the table, and the closing credits reveal Khrushchev himself eventually fell from grace and was exiled.
• Potty Failure:
  • Khrushchev entertains the group by sharing a story about Stalingrad, where a kid told them that if you stick someone's finger in a glass of water while they sleep, they wet themselves.
  Stalin: What's next? You stick a bar of chocolate in their pocket, they shit their pants?
  • Stalin loses control of his bladder as he collapses from his stroke. His inner circle are utterly disgusted by his urine-soaked trousers when they discover his corpse.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Along with being a lot funnier than the graphic novel, several subplots are removed, most notably Beria's attempts to groom Vasily as a potential pawn while Vasily's very public breakdown is occurring.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Beria, the man who orchestrated the Great Terror and has the blood of millions on his hands, pushes through reforms to liberalize the Soviet state, put a stay on executions, and free low-level political prisoners. He does not do this out of the kindness of his heart (as he is still murdering people left and right to secure his own position), but because these reforms make him look good and are necessary for the sake of progress.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The entire soundtrack consists of segments from Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 in B minor (Pathetique), and Chopin's Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No.4.
• Puppet King: Malenkov is quickly established to be a weak and indecisive ruler, and Beria tries to use this to his advantage. Later, Khrushchev manages to force Malenkov into approving Beria's execution.
• The Purge: Several are carried out throughout the movie, and the film covers the tail end of Stalin's final purge organized by Lavrentiy Beria, the subsequent purges carried out by Beria on his own as Stalin dies, and the counter-purge against Beria and his cronies as Khrushchev and the others vie for power and try to avoid becoming victims themselves.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Beria's charges are being read, he bellows that everyone in the room has killed people. This is apparently why Khrushchev dwells heavily on the accusations of rape, listing out the individual names and ages of Beria's youngest victims as the crowd shouts "rapist!"

While Beria was indeed a serial rapist, this was not actually one of the charges he was convicted of.

• Reaction Shot: When Stalin's head is cut open for the autopsy, the Presidium watches it in abject horror.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Part of the movie's humour comes from the fact that many of the real-life events are so absurdly over-the-top that they come across like a parody of history and not the thing itself. Armando Iannucci specifically invoked this in an interview, stating "There were certain things we toned down because we just thought, 'People won’t believe it.'"
  • There really was a cover-up of the accidental deaths of almost the entire Russian national ice hockey team (although the plane crash that killed them happened in 1950, well before Stalin died) and the country at large didn't learn about the crash until the 1960s. While the cover-up was standard Soviet policy and out of Vasily's hands, he was indeed so terrified of what his father would do if he found out that he recruited a new team to pretend that nothing had happened.
  • Zhukov's Chest of Medals is already pretty extreme, until you see this real life portrait, and it gets better when you realize the real man wore nearly twice as many. According to Jason Isaacs, 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.
  • In real life, there were actually three conductors at the Radio Moscow concert, not two. After the first one knocked himself out, the second conductor also had to be replaced because he came to the concert hall absolutely stinking drunk.
  • Some people accused Beria's serial rape sprees as a tasteless example of Gratuitous Rape to make the others look better by comparison. He really was that horrible in real life, and the numerous accusations of sexual assault were brought up at his trial. ^note Although he was indulgent of Beria's predatory habits, Stalin didn't trust him and allegedly, when he heard his daughter Svetlana was alone at Beria's house, he telephoned her and told her to leave immediately, and also apparently made it abundantly clear that if there was any hint that she had been interfered with in any way, Beria would not survive the day. Alexander Poskrebyshev (who was part of Stalin's personal chancellery) upon hearing Beria compliment one of his daughters on her beauty, hastily pulled her aside and instructed her never to accept a lift from Beria. His handing the bouquets of his flowers to his female victims was straight out of real life; if they accepted the bouquets, it was taken as an admission that the sex was consensual, and if they refused, they were arrested.
  • If anything, Beria's Obviously Evil behavior was toned down from real life. He actually gloated over Stalin's death while the other Politburo members were openly weeping (instead of merely whispering a discreet, mocking final message to the body as depicted), and he also had a habit of bragging that he killed Stalin. Scientists did indeed find evidence that Stalin had been poisoned, although whether it was the actual cause of Stalin's death is disputed. His Villainous Breakdown was even more over-the-top and farcical than in the movie; in real life, he was first stripped down to his tighty-whitey briefs, and blubbered on for so long that the executioner got tired of listening to his begging and stuffed a sock in Beria's mouth before shooting him just to shut him up.
  • Early in the film, Stalin gets his advisors to stay late to watch an American cowboy movie. Stalin actually was a fan of Westerns and other Soviet top dogs like Mikoyan were fans of aspects of American culture and food, even after USA was declared the number one enemy during the Cold War. No one thus questions the desire to watch an American film even in private.
  • Khrushchev really did go over what jokes worked with Stalin and which didn't with his wife after his late night carousing with him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Zhukov. He doesn't have much to gain by helping out Khruschev 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, 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.
• Reusable Lighter Toss: Zhukov sets fire to Beria's petrol-soaked corpse by tossing his lighter on to it.
• Ridiculous Counter-Request: When Vasily says he wants to make a speech at his father's funeral, Khrushchev replies "And I want to fuck Grace Kelly." The Sarcasm-Blind Vasily doesn't pick up that Khrushchev's dismissing his request.
• Right Behind Me: Beria comes to visit Molotov, who is already being visited by Khrushchev. Not wanting to admit that they were talking about Beria, Khrushchev and Molotov claim that they were discussing Molotov's wife Polina, who Stalin had sent to a labor camp five years earlier, and attempt to allay any suspicions Beria might have by asserting firmly that of course Stalin was right to do so. Beria suggests that she was innocent and mistreated, which they assume to be a test and double down on condemning her as a traitor. Then Beria reveals that the reason for his visit is to bring Polina home, having taken advantage of Stalin's death to commute her sentence — she's been standing just outside the door this whole time.
• Running Gag:
  • Each member of the Central Committee arriving at Stalin's dacha and kneeling in the puddle of "his indignity" as they attempt to show their grief.
  • Malenkov's attempt to recreate a photo of Stalin with a little girl on a balcony. His handlers round up a collection of little girls similar in age and appearance to the photo, but he insists on having the same little girl as in the original photo, and orders the NKVD to find her. When they do, he decides she's grown too tall, and has her sent away and one of the other little girls brought back. Before they can go out on the balcony, the girl has to wait uncomfortably on the sidelines as the Central Committee have a vicious argument — and when they do, the little girl is too little and can't be seen over the balcony railing.
  • "Are you wearing pyjamas?"
  • Malenkov's narcisstic attempts at reclaiming his youth through makeup and propaganda:
    Zhukov: Jesus Christ, did Coco Chanel take a shit on your head?
  • Various jokes about baldness or hair:
    Vasily: You're not even a person, you're a testicle!
• The Scapegoat:
  • It is debatable whether a single person in the NKVD prisons is actually guilty of anything.
  • The replacement conductor, thinking he's about to be arrested, tells his wife to go along with any accusations against him.
  • Khrushchev and Beria agree to execute a bunch of low-level officers for the killing of 1500 civilians on their way to Stalin's funeral, even though it was as much their fault as anyone else's, and it's not even clear if the officers who actually carried out the killings will be the ones who are punished. Beria dies first and presumably takes the heat for it, though, since Khrushchev ends up being the one in power. In fact, Beria at first suggests scapegoating the 1500 mourners, to an incredulous Khrushchev and company.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Molotov is depicted as one.
• Sentenced Without Trial: Much of the film concerns the Evil Power Vacuum left at the top of the Soviet Union in the wake of Josef Stalin's death. For most of the film, Lavrentiy Beria, the psychopathic Serial Rapist who was the head of Stalin's Secret Police, and Nikita Khrushchev, a clever but seemingly powerless politician, wrestle for control. When Khrushchev manages to enlist the Army in his cause, he has Beria arrested and prepares to drag him off to a Kangaroo Court. When Georgy Malenkov, who was Stalin's hapless Number Two, protests that Beria deserves a proper trial, Khrushchev shoots back that it's kill or be killed with Beria, and if Beria manages to survive a real trial, he will murder everyone else within the Soviet Union's inner circle (and likely their entire families) as revenge. Beria also tries to insist on his right to a trial, but Khrushchev ignores and overrides him, instead having Beria's trial basically consist of Khrushchev saying "Here are the charges, we find you guilty, and sentence you to death." The "trial" and execution take about two minutes from start to finish.
• Serial Rapist: True to life, Beria is well-known to be a serial rapist, who got away with his crimes for years as he's head of the KGB. He's charged with over three hundred counts of rape, some even involving prepubescent girls, before he's summarily executed.^note The actual Beria would both troll the streets for random girls to rape, as well as extort sexual favors from women desperate to free their relatives from government custody. His behavior was supposedly so well known and out of control that Stalin once called his daughter to order her to leave the house when he realized she and Beria were alone together. However, at his actual trial he wasn't really charged with this.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Zhukov is depicted wearing only three Hero of the Soviet Union medals. This is correct, as he did not receive his fourth decoration until 1956.
  • At one point, Khrushchev is addressed as "Nikita Sergeyevich." Being addressed by your first name and then middle name is common in Russia and other Slavic countries.
• Shutting Up Now: Malenkov after the "No Problem" statement.
  Malenkov: Ignore me.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Zhukov confiscates Beria's knife, Beria tells Zhukov how much he's going to enjoy peeling the the skin off of his face. Zhukov is unfazed and tells him "Not with that, you won't."
• Skewed Priorities: Malenkov and Beria are more concerned with the Central Committee being quorate before they get Stalin a doctor, which Khrushchev lampshades. Justified since they're obviously trying to delay getting him medical treatment.
  Khrushchev: "Quorate"?! The room is only 75% conscious!
• Small Name, Big Ego: Malenkov may have a high party position, but it's established immediately that he's a moron, making reference to someone Stalin has made an Unperson to Stalin's face. One wonders how long the man would have lasted had Stalin not died, since being Beria's toady could only protect him for so long.
• Smug Snake: Beria.
• The Sociopath: Beria. Stalin's hatchetman was never going to be nice, but Beria takes it to a whole new level - in his very first scene, he specifically orders a woman to be murdered right in front of her husband, and only goes downhill from there, casually doling out executions left and right for the pettiest of reasons (at one point a Mook gets executed for stuttering) and trying to browbeat the rest of the Presidium in line through sheer terror and intimidation - not to mention his side hobby of being a Serial Rapist (which was actually toned down from real life). Even moments of supposed kindness or mercy (such as ordering a halt to executions and amnesty for select prisoners) are only done to make himself look good and secure his own power.
• Spiteful Spit: Vasily tries to do this when he's tackled and held down. It backfires and the spit hits his own forehead.
• The Spymaster: Lavrentiy Beria, chief of the NKVD.
• The Starscream: Brezhnev to Khrushchev. While Khrushchev's disposal happened long after the timeframe of the movie, Brezhnev is shown suspiciously looking his boss' way in the final scene.
• State Sec: The NKVD, who routinely round people up in the middle of the night and have them killed.
• Succession Crisis: Officially, the succession is straightforward: an established rule dictates that on the leader's death, he will be succeeded by his deputy. However, Malenkov is a weak-willed ditherer (Stalin made him his Number Two specifically because he wouldn't pose a threat to his own power and become The Starscream), so there's still a conflict among the more strong-minded and devious officials to determine who will be unofficially but actually in charge.
• Talk to the Fist: Zhukov decks Vasily the moment he sees him, calling him a disgrace to the uniform. He also gives Beria a bloody nose during the coup after Beria starts shouting for his guards.
• Taunting the Unconscious: Every single member of the inner circle reacts with a big show of grief upon discovering that Stalin is half-dead from a stroke...except for Lavrentiy Beria. Not only does he poke fun at the fact that Stalin's clearly pissed himself, but as soon as the unconscious General Secretary is hauled into bed, Beria whispers into his ear, "You have a nice long sleep, old man. I'll take it from here." Incidentally, this is Truth in Television: Beria supposedly reacted with open mockery when Stalin was on his deathbed, and immediately fell back on toadying when it looked as if he might be recovering.
• This Cannot Be!: Beria says this when Stalin momentarily recovers.
• This Is Unforgivable!: It isn't like the Politburo members and the Red Army were very fond of Beria in the first place, but when Khrushchev reads charges of raping children against him during the Kangaroo Court, the rage of everyone in the room is palpable.
• Those Two Guys: The two unfortunate soldiers on duty outside of Stalin's office when he dies, and who are left standing there for most of the day without an order to 'stand down':
  Guard 1: [hearing Stalin's body hit the floor with a thud] Should we investigate?
  Guard 2: Should you shut the fuck up before you get us both killed?
  • Mikoyan and Bulganin fill this role among the members of the Central Committee.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: As Khrushchev and his wife are going over the former's notes from last night (seeing which jokes were considered funny by Stalin and which weren't), she finds one that simply says "Molotov chhh". After some effort, Khrushchev remembers it means "Molotov *khhhhk*", as he's on the list for execution.
• Toilet Humour: A mild version. The Presidium comes in to find Stalin's unconscious body and there is much squeamishness as they all try to avoid kneeling in the "puddle of [Stalin's] own indignity" as they attempt to show their grief. Kaganovich and Mikoyan still end up covered in urine when they move the body.
  • Also, when Beria is arrested, he's held in a bathroom and Mikoyan decides to poke fun at his expense.
  Beria: Is this magisterial enough for you all? This charade? This is a lavatory!
  Mikoyan: Well, you should feel at home then, shouldn't you, you little coil of shit?
• Trenchcoat Warfare: Zhukov smuggles two automatic rifles to his men who are waiting for him in the bathroom by concealing them under his greatcoat.
  Zhukov: Alright, lads. Here are your dates for tonight.
  Brezhnev: I'll have the tall blonde one.
• Troll: Zhukov.
  Zhukov: I'm going to have to report this conversation. Threatening to do harm or obstruct any member of the Presidium in the process of...[cracks up]...look at your fucking face!
• A Truce While We Gawk: The Presidium's plotting is briefly put on hold when they watch the coroners open Stalin's head and reveal his skull, with all of them (even Beria) being understandably grossed out by the sight.
• Understatement: Beria says that Stalin is "feeling unwell," when he's clearly near death from a stroke. Although it's partly this and partly Insistent Terminology, since everyone is still so afraid of Stalin that they're initially afraid to come right out and say the obvious in case it turns out he's not dead and they get into a lot of trouble because of it.
  • Zhukov's Post-Mortem One-Liner breaking the silence after Beria's chaotic and messy show trial:
  Zhukov: Well, that got it done.
• Undignified Death:
  • Stalin is forced to lie for hours on his office floor, soaked in his own piss, while his sycophants care more about saving their own skin.
  • Beria's execution is one of the most humiliating displays of Face Death with Despair in media. Even more undignified in real life, where people got so fed up with Beria's begging that they shoved a sock in his mouth.
• The Unfettered: Beria, as part of the Secret Police, does whatever he likes, knowing no one will ever dare protest. This bites him in the ass when everyone turns on him.
• Unperson: Used as a Historical In-Joke during the end credits, as people are edited out of photographs.
• Unusual Euphemism: When the NKVD men come to take Vasily away from the hockey rink, he comes out with one of these:
  Vasily: My father will have you saddled and ridden to Siberia, you rude fucking pies!^note In the original script, his line was arguably even funnier: "You have no manners, you rude fucking cunts!"
• Upper-Class Twit: Vasily is a thoroughly useless drunken incompetent who is only shown the least amount of respect due to who his father is.
• Verbal Backspace: While trying to persuade Maria Yudina to play for the recreated performance of the piano concerto, Andreyev says in frustration that even Stalin will notice if they substitute a different pianist. Yudina asks him if he's certain the room they're in isn't bugged, and he immediately backtracks and says that of course Stalin will notice because he has the most discerning ears in the Soviet Union.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: While scenes and historical events are retold to fit Rule of Funny, this movie is loosely based on Real Life moments surrounding Stalin's death:
  • The fact that Stalin suffered for hours after having his stroke because no one dared to go in and check on him until it was too late.
  • The problem with finding any qualified doctors to treat him in time was true: the government was in the middle of The Doctors Plot, and as a result, there were few physicians on hand to take immediate control of the situation. However, the film glosses over the Plot itself (an anti-Jewish pogrom that also might have been grounds for Stalin to have Beria purged).
  • Beria really was a serial rapist who gave bouquets of flowers to his victims the next morning. This was intended to prove that the sex was consensual. What wasn't included was that after Stalin died, he bragged often that he killed Stalin; decades later, scientists found evidence that, yes, Stalin had been poisoned, though it wasn't necessarily his cause of death.
  • Khrushchev did launch his coup during a meeting of the Presidium after launching into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech on Beria. The soldiers were summoned by a button under the desk.
  • Malenkov was pretty much bullied into going along with the coup and did refuse to meet Beria's gaze as it happened, but he did press the button under the desk on his own volition and was convinced that Beria was unfit to be leader of the Soviet Union due to Beria's handling of the East German Uprising of 1953.
  • Pianist Maria Yudina might have been forced to play for a single recording to be delivered to Stalin. She was also a harsh critic of the Soviet regime. However, if she did, it was in 1944, not 1953.
  • There really was a mad dash to leave Stalin's dacha after his death was confirmed. Beria cheerfully told the other Presidium members that they owed him their lives and walked out of the room, loudly announcing his departure. Mikoyan then made a cryptic remark about Beria's intent to make a grab for more power, and everyone present rushed to their limousines.
  • The dinner party at the start of the film played out pretty much exactly how it did in Real Life, with one exception: Stalin would put on a cowboy movie before dinner, not after it.
  • In reality, Beria had to be smuggled out of the Kremlin at nightfall and the NKVD forces weren't removed from the building until the day after.
  • Beria was tried along with six associates who were Adapted Out. The six were executed immediately after the trial, while Beria was shot separately.
• Vice President Who?: Malenkov, nominally the number two man in the USSR, is actually a bumbling idiot who's only where he is because he's good at kissing Stalin's butt (and no threat to him). When he succeeds as General Secretary on Stalin's death, he is hopelessly outmatched, especially with far more competent men like Beria (evil, but competent) and Khrushchev maneuvering for power.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Zhou Enlai and Ivan Konev are only named in the credits. Leonid Brezhnev is named in the ending scene, doubling his earlier appearances as a Rewatch Bonus.
• Villainous Breakdown: Beria seriously loses his cool before he gets shot in the head. And shortly before that, when he seems to sense the power dynamics tipping against him, he throws a red-faced screaming fit, telling everyone else around him that he has documents on each and every one of them, scrunching the documents up and throwing them at the feet of the bewildered Presidium. Humorously, the film actually tones down what really happened — the real Beria was so emotional when he was begging, his executioner stuffed a sock in his mouth to shut him up before shooting him.
• Vocal Dissonance: Almost every actor uses their natural voice. Stalin and the Presidium all sound either British or North American and Zhukov sounds like he is from Yorkshire (though actor Jason Isaacs was in fact born in Liverpool).
• Vodka Drunkenski: Vasiliy Stalin.
• Volatile Second Tier Position: Basically everyone in Stalin's inner circle; all of them have to constantly humor, amuse and appease their master, or risk falling out of favor - and from there, an extremely slippery slope towards exile, imprisonment or execution.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Lydia Timashuk, whom the Presidium hires to get some doctors for Stalin (and whom they intended to use as a scapegoat and execute in the event that the doctors failed to save him), isn't seen while Beria's men loot Stalin's dacha.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After Khrushchev let the trains back into Moscow, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of mourners, Zhukov is appalled and calls him out for it. Played With, however, as he immediately jumps on board with Khrushchev's plan when he explains it.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The ending mentions that Khrushchev became leader of the USSR in 1956, only to be deposed by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. This info is presented while showing Khrushchev at a concert, with Brezhnev in the background looking his way.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Khrushchev warns Maria Yudina that their prior association could be used as a pretext by the secret police for killing both of them:
  Maria: Maybe. But I'm confident of everlasting life.
  Khrushchev: Who the fuck in their right mind would want everlasting life? The endless conversation...
• World of Snark: Everybody in the movie throws shade of some kind. Even Svetlana and Vasily indulge in some snark.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: How Khrushchev gets the rest of the Presidium to agree to get rid of Beria. First, he appeals to Zhukov, who's the most rational, the least compromised by horrendous atrocities and also, importantly, the head of the Red Army. Once Zhukov is on board he starts asking the others, but while they're theoretically in favour, they all agree that it has to be unanimous, and that he has to get Malenkov to agree, which is difficult because a.) Malenkov already regards himself as the next General Secretary, b.) is opposed to there being obvious divisions within the Presidium, and c.) is an idiot. Sure enough, Malenkov doesn't even want to hear about it. In desperation, Khrushchev simply lies to Molotov, Kaganovich and Mikoyan that Malenkov has said yes, thereby ensuring that they will follow on, and thus buys himself more time to persuade Malenkov. He only succeeds in doing so at the point that they're literally frogmarching Beria to his show trial, by which time things have gone so far that Khruschev is able to persuade Malenkov that if they don't now get rid of Beria, he will kill them all.
  Khrushchev: The only choice we have is between his death and his revenge.
• Written Sound Effect: Referenced when Khrushchev's wife reads his note "Molotov HHH," which she describes as Khrushchev's drunken gibberish. It takes a second for him to realize the H's are the sound he made when miming a sliced throat, signaling that Molotov is being set up for execution.
• Yes-Man: Basically everyone, but especially Malenkov.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Molotov has recently fallen out of favor with Stalin, and Beria tells Khrushchev and Malenkov that he's on the latest kill list.
  • Beria has the staff of Stalin's dacha rounded up once the other committee members leave, especially Stalin's body doubles as "their contract is up."
• Young Future Famous People: A unnamed soldier with bushy eyebrows ("OK, let's go catch a pig for the pot") is part of Zhukov's forces in the coup. At the very end of the film, it's revealed that the man is Khrushchev's successor, Leonid Brezhnev, who eventually overthrew Khrushchev. The last scene of the movie is Brezhnev sitting behind Khrushchev at a performance, intently staring at Khrushchev's back all the while.^note Brezhnev was responsible for ending the Khrushchev Thaw and reintroducing policies from Stalin's era, which led to rampant oppression and corruption within the Politburo. Brezhnev really was a soldier who participated in removing Beria.

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