One might expect that this anecdotal slice of history would depict its subject, former Soviet leader Josef Stalin, as a complex man capable of both positive and negative acts. Instead, his former bodyguard, Alexei Rybin, seems to recall only the positive aspects of Stalin, describing him as a charitable man, haunted by his wife's death, who was both attentive to the needs of his people and an enthusiastic patron of the arts. Rybin does speak of his own reliance on “patriotic” informers to arrest enemies of the state, but since he is not interviewed on camera (he merely recounts a series of stories), his statements are never challenged. Instead, filmmaker Semyon Aranovich chooses to comment with the ironic use of newsreel footage.

Shelf Talk: History buffs and students of Russian culture are the most obvious audience for this memoir. Since filmmaker Aranovich provides no contextual details to what Rybin discusses, one must already be a student of Soviet history—or be willing to do a little research—in order to place all the names mentioned.