 The New York Times' critic dubbed it as a "deafening blend of historical pageantry and wishful thinking... directed as if his (Chiaureli's) life depended upon it" and – in what author David Caute claimed was the worst condemnation which could be leveled at it in the day – that it had a "Hollywood-style plot".He also disapproved of the historical veracity of the Yalta Conference scene, while John Howard Lawson, recently released from prison, praised it as an authentic depiction of events.Officials in Artkino, the picture's US distributor, claimed the film was "already witnessed by 1.2 million people" in the United States by 9 June 1952, a day after its release there.