“The most important of all arts”: Film images of the Soviet past in the Russian myth-making practice

Introduction. The article investigates the specifics of cinematic images of the USSR in Russian myth-making practice. The main objective of the study is to analyze the impact of images of the Soviet past, created and broadcast by post-Soviet cinema, on the formation of historical memory about the USSR. Theoretical analysis. The study is based on the hypothesis that cinema is one of the significant aspects of myth-making, which directly participates in the construction of collective representations of the past. The research interest in the peculiarities of the images of Soviet history broadcast by the Russian film industry is conditioned by the process of returning the Soviet symbolic capital to contemporary socio-political practice. Conclusions. As the study demonstrates, in the process of returning the Soviet heritage to sociopolitical practice, the heroic narrative has become predominant in Russian cinema. That is, the images of the USSR, broadcast by the national cinematography, become an element in the construction of the heroic myth. At the same time, film images of the Soviet past can be considered as a tool for reflection on the history of the Soviet Union and working through the trauma provoked by its collapse.