"Stalin destroyed the status quo, and he rebuilt it!" - Malenkov. My favourite quote of the whole film.

Molotov being (initially) against the withdrawal of a death list that he was listed on, is hilarious.

The hands silently going up and down is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen to this day

"The people responsible should be found and punished". said the guy responsible.

“Should we not do the same and stick to what we believed in?”
(nods)
“No.”

"Releasing people we arrested 3 days ago will make us look cretinous"
Every line is fantastic in this film

Can I just applaud the set design? The room is just a little too narrow for that table and at the same time too long, which creates a visual strain and a sense of how everyone is trapped and twisted in unnatural directions.

"He was liberal!"
"...ʳᵃᵈⁱᶜᵃˡ..."
"He was radical!"

"You told me. Last night. In the bathroom."
- Vyacheslav Molotov, 1953.

I like how they speak about Stalin's decisions as if he could still listen to what they're talking about and punish them

This is like every faculty meeting ever held...

"He was liberal"
- radical
"He was radical"

"Carried u-nani-mously..." is every work meeting ever.

1:14 “Wha🥁🥁🥁bout Comrade Khrushchev?”

U..na..ni..mously...😁

I’m imagining this was what happened on Coruscant after Palpatine died.

The bit about the funeral is easily missed here but surprisingly critical. Molotov apparently innocently suggests Kruschev and Beria sees it as a humiliating job and enthusiastically approves. But as everyone round the table should have known, Stalin used his organisation of Lenin's funeral as a springboard to challenge Trotsky and eventually take the leadership, and NK will do the same in the film.

We also learn, though he's vague and cagey about it, that Molotov hates Beria (an irony, since Beria saved his life earlier in the film without his knowledge) and ends up being the one to push for his death. Malenkov is obviously an empty suit and we're told Kaganovich is past his prime. So are we supposed to see this apparently naive and off-hand idea by a seemingly head-in-the-clouds Molotov as actually him teeing NK up to take on and displace Beria as Stalin's successor? Or is it just what it first appears?

As someone who has sat in a lot parliamentary-type meetings, Molotov's speech is hilarious but Beria's reaction to it is what kills me. What Molotov did is what's called 'filibustering' wherein someone in a meeting (usually one of the 'old guard') starts going on a tangent - sometimes random, sometimes with an agenda - usually to delay or deflect a motion. That alone was hilarious but then at 2:55, Beria knows that Molotov is going to filibuster and immediately drops his hand and scratches his forehead in frustration. It's like Molotov does this so often that it's annoying and to me, I find that the best part of this whole scene.

The “Exit” sign above the door, the set exudes Soviet Union

What's great about this movie was it answered the question: "what if Kruschev actually had the personality and mannerisms of Steve Buscemi?" And it turns out that Nikita Kruschev Buscemi is awesome every split second we see him on screen.