General Aleksei Antonov Konstantin Bartashevich as General Vasily Sokolovsky Sergei Blinnikov as Marshal Ivan Konev Boris Livanov as Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky Vladimir Lyubimov as Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky Boris Tenin as General Vasily Chuikov Mikhail Sidorkin as General Sergei Shtemenko Oleg Frelikh as Franklin D. Roosevelt Viktor Stanitsyn as Winston Churchill Marie Nováková (Koptová) as Eva Braun Jan Werich as Hermann Göring Nikolai Petrunkin as Joseph Goebbels Vladimir Renin as Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt Nikolai Plotnikov as Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch Vladimir Pokrovsky as General Alfred Jodl Karel Roden Jr. as Charles Bedstone Miroslav Homola as Heinz Linge (credited as K. Homola) Dmitry Dubov as Mikhail Yegorov Georgy Tatishvili as Meliton Kantaria Veriko Anjaparidze as mother of killed German soldier Hans Nikolay Bogolyubov as Khmelnitsky Sofya Giatsintova as Antonina Ivanovna, Ivanov's mother Yevgeniya Melnikova as Lidiya Nikolayevna, secretary Dmitry Pavlov as Tomashevich Andrei Petrov as pilot Ivan Solovyov as Johnson Tamara Nosova as Katya Leonid Pirogov as James F. Byrnes Production Background Stalin's cult of personality, which began to manifest itself already in the late 1930s, was marginalized during World War II; to mobilize the population against the enemy, Soviet films focused on historical heroes who defended Russia or on the feats of the people themselves. The premier's character appeared in only two pictures during the war. However, as victory seemed secure, Stalin tightened his control over every aspect of the Soviet society, including cinema. After 1945, his cult returned to the screen with greater intensity than ever before, and he was credited as the sole architect of Germany's defeat. Denise J. Youngblood wrote that shortly afterwards, there remained only three kinds of war heroes: "the dead, the maimed and Stalin." Inception Mikheil Chiaureli, Stalin's favorite director, and writer Pyotr Pavlenko had already collaborated to create the 1946 personality cult picture The Vow. The Soviet Minister of Cinema, Ivan Bolshakov, instructed them both to begin work on The Fall of Berlin shortly after the release of The Vow in July 1946. The film was conceived as the Mosfilm studio's gift to Stalin for his official 70th birthday, which was to be held on 21 December 1949. The Fall was supposed to be part of a cycle of ten films about the premier's role in World War II, entitled Stalin's Ten Blows, though not corresponding with the eponymous series of Eastern Front campaigns. The project was only partially fulfilled until