The Middle School Kids Trying to Make Sense of Stalin’s Tyranny

The town of Marathon, Texas, has about 400 residents. When we visited, the middle school had only 11 students. One of them — Malachi — was obsessed with the dictator Joseph Stalin.

When Malachi heard about the Texas History Day competition, he wrote a play about the Soviet dictator, and enlisted his friends Cayden, Lyric and Jurem to act as civilians and henchmen. We spent a week following the boys during their frenzied rehearsals for the state competition, under the guidance of their bemused teachers. Our short documentary, “Stalin Boys,” captures a particular moment in a middle school education, in which boys grapple with a dark history for the first time.

This raised many questions, including: What is communism? What went wrong? And, most important — what was Stalin’s favorite color? Ora De Kornfeld and Bianca Giaever are an Emmy Award-winning directing duo. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles.

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The town of Marathon, Texas, has about 400 residents. When we visited, the middle school had only 11 students. One of them — Malachi — was obsessed with the dictator Joseph Stalin.

When Malachi heard about the Texas History Day competition, he wrote a play about the Soviet dictator, and enlisted his friends Cayden, Lyric and Jurem to act as civilians and henchmen. We spent a week following the boys during their frenzied rehearsals for the state competition, under the guidance of their bemused teachers. Our short documentary, “Stalin Boys,” captures a particular moment in a middle school education, in which boys grapple with a dark history for the first time.

This raised many questions, including: What is communism? What went wrong? And, most important — what was Stalin’s favorite color? Ora De Kornfeld and Bianca Giaever are an Emmy Award-winning directing duo. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles.

Here are some tips. And here's our email: [email protected]. Op-Docs is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries by independent filmmakers.

Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Bluesky, Whats App and Threads.