process of rapid industrialisation through Five Year Plans, Tolstoy wrote a radically different play, Peter I, in which - borrowing a motto from Pushkin that 'Russia came into Europe like the launching of a ship' - the construction of a ship, with Peter acting as the master builder, is the symbol of the entire play. Stalin went to see the play, but left before the end, setting off speculation that he did not like it. Critics consequently trashed it, until Stalin sent Tolstoy a note saying "A splendid play. Only it's a pity Peter is not depicted heroically enough", and summoned him to advise him on how to write a novelised version of the life of Peter. The first volume of his uncompleted novel, Peter the Great was published in 1936, and won a Stalin Prize. In 1939, with war looming in Russia, Tolstoy produced a third version of his play, which stressed the importance of the army, and the patriotism of its foot soldiers. Ivan the Terrible In December 1940 Tolstoy was commissioned to write a play about the life of Ivan the Terrible, after the Central Committee had issued an instruction that Ivan's role in history was to be re-evaluated. The instruction was followed by a phone call from Stalin, who told Tolstoy that Ivan had 'one shortcoming', which was that he 'repented of his cruelty.' After the German invasion, Tolstoy moved to Zimenki, a village east of Moscow, where he wrote the first scenes of The Eagle and His Mate, covering the years 1553-59. In November 1941 he was evacuated to Tashkent, where he completed it the following February. This original version, which was to have been performed in the Maly Theatre was banned by order of the political director the Red Army, Aleksandr Shcherbakov, who sent Stalin a memo explaining that Tolstoy had failed to portray Ivan as "the outstanding stateman of the 16th century". Despite this official rebuke, Tolstoy was awarded a Stalin Prize in 1943 for The Road to Calgary. In April 1943 Tolstoy completed The Difficult Years, his second play about Ivan, covering the years to 1571. In June he sent the script to Stalin, complaining that Shcherbakov had failed to say whether the play was to be allowed to be performed. Stalin then read both scripts, suggested changes, and final versions were completed in November. Both scripts were published in 1944, and