Trofimov Andrey V.,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Ural State University of Economics, Russia, Yekaterinburg, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Visual Images of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Post-War Cinema
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-3-11
Based on the analysis of the content of Soviet cinema in the first post-war years, the paper identifies the thematic fields, story lines and semantic units that make up the image of the great Patriotic war. In the post-war Soviet society, cinema was an entertainment and recreation available to almost all categories of the population, and for the state it was a means of broadcasting normative visual images and meanings. Soviet cinema in the post-war years performed ideological, propaganda, communication, and integrative functions. It is estimated that in 1946–1950. 92 feature films made in the USSR were released on the cinema screens, 32 of them were either completely devoted to the theme of the great Patriotic war, or their story lines traced a connection with the war. The article analyzes the three key components of the generalized image of war presented in the Soviet post-war cinema: 1) the image of the “leader and commander” I.V. Stalin, the main battles of the war (it was supposed to create artistic film versions of “ten Stalin strikes”); 2) the image of enemies and allies; 3) the image of the people, Soviet people, heroism and sacrifice. It is noted that the most talented film productions, which combined historical realities and mythological storylines, and where memorable characters acted, became classic, they form an integral part of the “Gold Fund” of Russian cinema, contain elements of the national code of memory of the great Patriotic war, which unites modern Russian society.
Publishing: 29/06/2020
How to cite: Trofimov A.V. The Visual Images of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Post-War Cinema // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 3 (11), pp. 113–124. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-3-11.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2020
Keywords: Great Patriotic war; art cinema; image of war; post-war period