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STALIN'S WIFE
Directed & Written by: Slava Tsukerman.
Produced by: Slava Tsukerman & Myra Todorovsky.
Director of Photography: Slava Tsukerman, Vlad Sladkoy & Victor Netov.
Edited by: Arnie Schlissel.
Music by: Joel Diamond.
Released by: Cinetron Productions & Myrabel Studios.
Language: English & Russian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: USA. 104 min. Not Rated.

Joseph Stalin was a childhood hero of Nadezhda Alliluyev, the youngest daughter of a Russian revolutionary couple who befriended Stalin as a young man. (The Alliluyevs were the family Stalin never had - he was an only child who was beaten by his father.) According to family lore, Stalin saved three-year-old Nadezhda from drowning in the ocean. Years later, he married her; she was just 16 and he 39.

Using newly found archival documents coupled with interviews of family members, friends and historians, director Slava Tsukerman challenges viewers to consider unsolved mysteries as he presents contradictory accounts of events and little known facts about Nadezhda. Did Stalin propose to her after raping her in a private train car with her family nearby? Or was theirs an intimate love affair? Years later, when found soaked in blood in the bed she and Stalin shared, had Nadezhda committed suicide, or had Stalin killed her?

Opinions are divided on both accounts. Relatives who cite an alleged suicide note left with Nadezhda's sister, Anna, say the young wife was unhappy with her husband's behavior towards both her and the USSR following his rise to power. But others question how Nadezhda could have shot herself in the left temple when she was right-handed. Some close to the family report that at her coffin, Stalin's entire body shook as he sobbed and ambiguously said, "She left as an enemy."

Stalin's Wife opens with the suspense of a Hitchcock thriller, with panning shots of Moscow cloaked in darkness and a soundtrack of staccato-like music. While the loud, fast-paced revolutionary music playing in the background for much of the film is sometimes distracting, this compelling documentary is both thought-provoking and surprising in its details. Deborah Lynn Blumberg
April 29, 2005

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