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I WAS STALIN’S BODYGUARD

In 1989, during the melting period of "glasnost" in the still-existing Soviet Union, it became possible to probe with some honesty the dread decades under Stalin. So it was that documentarian Semyon Aranovich managed a lengthy on-camera talk with Alexei Rybin, then 81, a retired major in Stalin’s guard who had been with the late Communist dictator since the 1930s. Rybin is an unrepentant old Communist and total Stalin loyalist whose eyes tear up recalling wonderful moments with Uncle Joe — as when his boss told him one day to ease up on his guard duties and stroll over to share a glass of Georgian wine. There’s little new here about Stalin; the emphasis is on Rybin. And the more we hear, the scarier he becomes, as he boasts about ferreting out Stalin’s enemies with the aid of his 30 informers. In 1989, Rybin teaches children to play the accordion. We watch this devilish old man training them to be not just musicians, he explains, but right-thinking socialists. Stalin smiles up from below. In Russian with English subtitles. (90 minutes)

BY GERALD PEARY

Issue Date: June 13 - 19, 2003
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