Cinematocracy

Why Stalin Loved Tarzan and Wanted John Wayne Shot:

Stalin imposed politics on film but also film on reality: increasingly, he seemed to believe the movies and so base policy on them. Stalin revelled in films about thieves murdering their cohorts:

"What a fellow! Look how he did it!" Khrushchev found this "very depressing". He admired gangster movies, telling Churchill that Molotov should stay in Chicago "with the rest of the mobsters!"

[snip]

When he saw a movie about Catherine the Great's Admiral Ushakov, he suddenly decided to build a vast fleet, quoting from the movie. When he decided to tax the impoverished peasants and was told they were too poor to pay, he pointed to one of his own propaganda films that had no resemblance to reality. Another time, the sight of some missile in a propaganda movie inspired him to order a whole new line of weaponry.

Ton of fascinating stuff in there. I was going to excerpt the bit about John Wayne's brush with death, but you really should click through and read the whole thing. « via pullquote »