May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Harrison Ford's portrayal of Indiana Jones fighting Soviets earned protests from communists in northwestern Russia, who say the fourth film in the series ``spits on the soul of the Soviet people.''

The movie from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures perverts history and misleads young viewers, Veronika Klinovitskaya, the 28-year-old spokeswoman for the Communists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, said by phone today from the northern city.

The group urged supporters to flood Ford with copies of a protest letter published on its Web site, http://www.kplo.ru.

``You cynically beat the Soviet soldier in the face, while he was the one to raise a victory flag over the Reichstag,'' the group said in the letter, addressed also to Ford's co-star, Cate Blanchett. ``To speak directly, you'd be better off not coming here, you'll be beaten and spat on.''

The communist group, whose members are on average 30 years old, don't advocate violence, although they wouldn't rule out throwing overripe tomatoes, said Klinovitskaya, who wasn't yet two years old when the first Indiana Jones film was released in 1981.

Alexander Yushchenko, a spokesman for the Communist Party of Russia, or KPRF, declined to comment. ``I'd have to at least watch the film to protest,'' he said when reached by mobile phone in Moscow.

Klinovitskaya said she and other group members watched ``Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' on what was ``unfortunately'' a pirated DVD. They want the movie pulled from cinemas, although they have no objection to people watching it at home, she said.

Stalinist Villain

In the film, Blanchett plays a Stalinist villain, Irina Spalko, who wants archaeologist Jones to help her find a crystal skull that will help the Soviet Union rule the world.

The film is set in 1957 during the ``Khrushchev thaw'' in economic and cultural relations. It was the same year the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into outer space, ``to give the gift of a dream to all humankind,'' according to the letter.

During Josef Stalin's rule, from 1922 until his death in 1953, his security forces imprisoned and executed people suspected of disloyalty. At least 15 million people died, according to Memorial, a Russian human-rights group.

The movie opened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18 and may set a box-office record for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

To contact the reporter on this story: Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2008 11:15 EDT