This is the story of a face-off that pitted the two most powerful men on the planet for eight years: Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, and Truman, the president of the United States. This confrontation held the world in suspense and led them to the cold war.
When Truman came to power in the spring of 1945, with World War II still not over, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies and fought together against Nazi Germany. But, once Hitler was defeated, the antagonisms and ambitions put to sleep during the conflict resurfaced. In a few months, the positions froze and the two blocs stood against each other, irreconcilable... It was the beginning of the cold war.

This film recounts this pivotal period in our history. A period of high tension, while the United States and the USSR acquired atomic weapons. Until the death of Stalin in 1953, crises followed one another. Thanks to declassified archives, the exceptional testimonies of former spies and President Truman's grandson, we relive the story from the inside and understand how the terrible spiral of the Cold War was put in place.

Episode 1: Yalta, the twilight of the giants    • Video  
Episode 2: Truman-Stalin: The Dawn of the Cold War

A film written and directed by Émilie Lançon
A Martange Production