Russia's sacred myths
An interesting analogy to this is Stalin and the film <i>Ivan the Terrible</i>. Stalin commissioned the film because he admired Tsar Ivan, and thought of himself in his mold. His version of Ivan was a great man who was surrounded by corrupt boyars intending to sell out Russia, and only he  has the strength to unite the country against them. Ivan is loved by the common people, but hated by the sophisticated, &quot;europeanized&quot; nobility, who are traitors.<p>Stalin loved Part I, but was unhappy with Part II, since it didn&#x27;t fit his myth of Ivan. He banned the film and nearly had the director, Sergei Eisenstein executed.