historical truth." Following the speech, the film was banned altogether, and all of its copies were placed in the archives. However, it continued to be screened in the People's Republic of China, the leadership of which opposed Khrushchev's criticism of Stalin. The pro-Stalinist protesters in the March 1956 Georgian demonstrations included a request to hold showings of the film in their list of demands. Critical analysis Historian Nikolas Hüllbusch viewed The Fall of Berlin as a representation of Stalin's strengthening political power. He compared it to the first fiction film to feature the premier, the 1939 Lenin in 1918, which depicted Stalin as Vladimir Lenin's most devout disciple; and to The Vow, in which he is chosen as Lenin's heir and takes an oath to keep his legacy. In The Fall of Berlin, Lenin has no impact on the plot. Instead of being the state founder's successor, Stalin's legitimacy was now based on his leadership of the USSR during the war. Denise Youngblood wrote that although not the first to portray Stalin as "war hero in chief" – this was already done in pictures like The Battle of Stalingrad – The Fall of Berlin elevated him to a new status: "it deified Stalin." Richard Taylor pointed out the premier was the only decision maker in the plot, the only one responsible for the victory over Germany, and all other characters were either subservient or antagonistic. Stalin's stoic calm was stressed out by deliberately contrasting it to the hysterical rage of Hitler, or to the slow wit of Georgy Zhukov, who was portrayed in accordance with his political status in the late 1940s, after he was shunned by Stalin: Zhukov was not even among the generals who received Stalin in Berlin. Beside this, most characters – from Natasha to Gerd von Rundstedt – praise him as a great leader. Author Katerina Clark discerned that Stalin, beside his function as a great captain, was made the enabler of romantic relationship: before meeting him, Aleksei was incapable of expressing his love to Natasha. Slavoj Žižek commented the leader played the part of the "magician and the matchmaker who wisely leads the couple to reunion." Aleksei's character was not intended to be perceived as an individual, but rather, a symbol to the entire Soviet people: he was depicted as an archetypal worker; his date of birth is given as 25 October 1917 by the