On the 29th of August 1949, the USSR set off their first atomic bomb, just four years after the Americans. The speed with which they achieved this surprised the world. What nobody knew was that it was the result of espionage. At the centre of the operation was a very unusual female spy, Elizabeth Zaroubin, in a story worthy of the best spy novels ever written.

The enigma of the personality cult is revealed in the grand spectacle of Stalin’s funeral. The film is based on unique archive footage, shot in the USSR on March 5 – 9, 1953, when the country mourned and buried Joseph Stalin.

Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin’s Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.