Archangel

Telephone.

It's Comrade Malenkov.

Stalin knew one thing: Force.

During his reign, 20 million people lost their lives.

6 million were exiled, 18 million were shipped off to the Gulags.

Stalin... he's to spend his evenings at the Bolshoi .

Or ironically, watching American Westerns in his own private screening room.

Later, before he retired to bed,

he'd sign death warrants, sometimes for up to 6,000 people.

And even then, even then, he would write in the margins "not enough".

Make no mistakes.

During the years of terror the witch-finding general was Stalin himself.

He said, "To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely,"

"to slate an implacable vengeance, and then go to bed."

"There is nothing sweeter in the world."

Who are these people? What's their problem?

They called themselves "Aurora"

They are run by an old school KGB hardliner called Vladimir Mamantov.

Yeah, he tried to man a coup against Gorbachev.

Yeah, I interviewed him when he came out of prison.

He still thinks the age of Stalin is the golden era.

I apologize on behalf of . Follow me to bus please.

Hey, Professor.

You think you know all about Comrade Stalin.

Let me tell you, you don't know shit.

Follow me to bus, please.

So here we are, with our degrees and our double doctorates,

swirling around Moscow confronting the past.

And the Russians don't want to hear about it, you know,

because they're still scared shitless of Stalin.

- Oh, come on. - No, Fluke has a point.

Unlike Hitler, he was never exorcised.

They never had a Nuremberg, or Truth Commission, like they did in South Africa.

Hooten's the new Czar.

This is his generation.

Mobile phones, martinis, and Hugo Boss.

Stalin's into them.

Yeah, but who's the generation that doesn't live out their mistakes?

Do you know what they're saying to each other out there?

Josef would know how to deal with these terrorists.

Let me see if I can get a table.

You wanna go somewhere else for dinner?

Why do they call you Fluke?

Because I was a mistake.

My mother had me when she was 46.

Somebody said the name summed up your career.

That just isn't nice, is it? Italian or sushi?

You know... I think I'm just gonna stick with the group.

Maybe another night?

I .

What do you want?

I want someone to hear the truth.

I was there the night Stalin laid dead.

There I was driving Comrade Beria,

Chief of the Secret Police, Stalin's head chief man.

We left the with the key,

drove to the Kremlin, straight to Stalin's private quarters.

Stay.

Why did Beria choose you?

Well, I was a new boy... in the city.

A boy who would... keep a secret.

What did he find?

He came from the room... with a... folder.

A notebook inside.

Then I drove him to his house.

But why didn't Beria kill you?

I mean, he'd killed thousands for less.

He was a... clever bastard.

But he made a mistake...

...thinking everyone else was stupid.

But 3 months later they buried him.

So what happened to you?

They beat me, and other things...

...but I never break.

So then they sent me to the Gulag.

I came out in '69.

The day the Yankees put a man on the moon.

First... first thing hit me. Where was Stalin?

No pictures, no statues. There was disrespect.

Papu, if this book really exists,

it's a piece of history.

What use is history to me?

Well, history like this can sometimes be worth a lot of money.

For you, for you and your family.

I have no family.

Only slut daughter.

Who screws men like you in clubs.

Well, she won't have to anymore if this is worth what I think it is.

To Stalin.

I'm just...

Wait!

Tomorrow we must meet in lobby by 11 sharp.

No one must be late, please. For bus.

Oh, my God, what happened to you?

Research.

What was his name? Was an old man. He had a story to tell.

Sounds like a setup. Yeah, why would he run out on me?

Because he doesn't want it to look like a setup.

Wants you to track him down.

Persuade him. That's the psychology of a clutter fraud.

Remember the Hitler diary? I think he's for real.

'Quod volimus credimus libenter' Which means?

Yeah, I know what it means.

We always believe what we want to believe. Thank you, Adelman.

You don't want to hear that, do you?

You want him to lead you to Stalin's unpublished memoirs.

You'll make millions of dollars, rewrite history, and a choir would sing you praises at Harvard Yard.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have coffee and tea in the annex.

Gentlemen, R.J. O'Brian, Moscow correspondent of SNS.

How are you doing?

In a full month, we have boring people in a boring conference.

You're Dr. Kelso, right?

I read your last book. What was it? 3 years ago?

4. Actually, I believe it was 5.

If we are gonna nitpick, it was 6.

Why don't you took turns, Frank, you would know something to say.

- It is out of date. - Yes I know. Is it possible that I can renew it?

I'm a professor. I'm writing a book.

Fill in form. Send the mail.

Yeah, but I'm leaving Moscow tomorrow. Can you help me please?

I will talk to supervisor.

Are you the Kelso who wrote the book on fall of the Communist Party?

Ah... yes! Yes I guess I am.

- Great work! You really the bastards! - Thank you.

- You are? - Elena .

I need everything you've got on the death of Stalin, Elena.

- Statements, eyewitness accounts, please... - She will not approve this.

Does she have to know?

Thank you.

"Vladimir Mamantov"

I found another one. Page 512.

Thank you.

So umm... you went to Moscow State University?

I did, yes.

I spent a lot of time in this library with a girlfriend. It was warm.

Is this your address?

No. It is where Beria lived.

You know they found the human remains in the basement... bones.

He's a very busy man.

Ah... I wrote an article on him a few years ago. I'm Dr. Kelso.

I have something very important to tell him.

Hmm... I remember you. You wrote shit about me.

About what?

About a notebook... belonging to Josef Stalin.

You better come.

Turn around. Hands up.

What is it? Take it out.

It's just... I use it for making notes. I wasn't... gonna...

- Thank you. - Go in.

So you are part of the gathering of thieves.

Ah... I want a story, I'm... I'm not a thief.

Imagine if your country sold its national archive

for a few miserable dollars.

Viktor!

The same sickness Reagan had.

I... I'm sorry.

Ah... keep your pity.

So... Stalin's notebook.

Sounds like bullshit.

No. It was mentioned in Volkogonov's biography.

His source was Aleksei Yepichev.

A man you knew well.

You wrote his entry in the Book of Heroes.

Yes, I was with him at the end,

when Gorbachev came to power.

A good time for a decent communist to die.

Did he ever mention that book?

Who told you about this?

An eyewitness... from that time?

Yes.

Name?

No, I rather not give it to you.

So why are you here?

I want to find out whether it's true or not.

If it exists, it belongs in Russia, not in some Californian University.

We're talking about a great man.

I'm sorry. I don't share your admiration.

Really? I think you do.

When you saw his portrait, you almost salivated.

Stalin inherited the nation with wooden ploughs,

and left us an empire armed with atomic weapons.

The man who came after him pissed away...

He saw it coming. He told them, "After I've gone...

...the capitalists will drown you, like blind kittens."

You'd like him back, wouldn't you?

Hello!

Maggie, it's Fluke. Look, I'm not getting back on Friday.

I'm gonna stay in Moscow, something's come up.

So ah... tell the boys I love them, and that I will make it up to them.

- You know this place? - It's a club.

Disco. Many girls.

Thank you.

Winston Churchill once described Russia as a...

...riddle, wrapped up in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Well I like to feel that the last few days

we've solved the riddle, and unravelled the mystery,

and we're left with the enigma, which, I believe is the...

It's kinda a last night thing.

I didn't think you liked me.

I don't like your type.