Rehabilitating Ivan the Terrible: Colleague Geoffrey Roberts reports that Stalin favored the narrative history of Robert Vipper, who rehabilitated Ivan the Terrible as a state-builder rather than a cruel tyrant; Stalin criticized Eisenstein's film sequel

Rehabilitating Ivan the Terrible: Colleague Geoffrey Roberts reports that Stalin favored the narrative history of Robert Vipper, who rehabilitated Ivan the Terrible as a state-builder rather than a cruel tyrant; Stalin criticized Eisenstein's film sequel for portraying Ivan as weak, insisting Ivan's terror was a necessary defense of the state, a view justifying Stalin's own purges.
1945