Arena Season 1, Episode 538

Stalin - the Red God · BBC Four · Thursday, May 31

Joseph Stalin is seen outside his native land as one of history's most deplorable tyrants, but throughout the former Soviet states a cult of Stalin still exists. This film documents Stalin's development from would-be provincial priest to ruthless autocrat, and shows how he exploited the repression of the Russian Orthodox Church, using visual propaganda, to reinvent himself as a quasi-religious idol.