Reconstruction of World War II in Contemporary Russian Films
Reconstruction of World War II in Contemporary Russian Films

Author(s): Svetlozar Kirilov
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies, Hybrid Warfare
Published by: Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Софийски университет „Св. Кл. Охридски”
Keywords: World War II; Russian films; Soviet films; soft power
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses Russian films about World War II since 2000 and their contribution to Russia's soft power. These new Russian movies have reconstructed World War II, focusing on some topics atypical for the war films from the Soviet era: huge Soviet casualties; omitted battles, such as that near Rzhev in 1942; the barrier troops, who killed retreating Soviet soldiers; the contribution to the war effort of non-Russian Soviet soldiers, emphasized now most likely to maintain the loyalty of non-Russian citizens of the Russian Federation. The new Russian movies about WWII still avoid some uneasy themes: the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939; the war against Finland; the occupation of the Baltic countries in 1940; help from the United States. The non-democratic character of Stalin's system has been covered in some of the new films, but most contemporary Russian filmmakers have preferred to reconstruct Soviet society as united against a common enemy, instead of showing tensions between the political rulers and citizens or between di൵erent social groups: a portrait congruent with the renewed ambitions of Russia in the world and building the country’s soft power.

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