Chapter 4 Summary

During the first two years of his presidency, Mikhail Gorbachev seems to be yet another "Party" leader, who will offer more of the same to the Soviet people. He praises Lenin and Stalin, denies much of the past, and seems content to continue Stalin's tradition of rewriting history. Although Stalin didn't invent the concept of manipulating the past, he nearly perfected it. In doing so, he set a standard that nearly all of his successors, with the exception of Nikita Khrushchev, would try to emulate. In 1956, Khrushchev publicly criticized Stalin and acknowledged the Soviet government's unsavory past, but Khrushchev's power didn't last long. It is another 30 years before Gorbachev picks up where Khrushchev left off.

As it turns out, one of the most successful means of accomplishing this was through a film entitled "Repentance," written and directed by a well-known Georgian filmmaker, named...