Authors

Discussion

The research is devoted to the disclosure of the key narratives and value-semantic accents of the Soviet discourse presented in modern Russian movies. Based on the analysis of Russian artistic cinematographic production of 2022-2024, four key narratives were outlined: the Russian Revolution and the formation of the USSR, the Great Patriotic War, the "Golden Age" of the USSR and the 1990s, or the period of the collapse of the empire. The key value-semantic accents were identified: 1) revision of the condemnation of the totalitarian regime using the reasoning of its ambivalence; 2) sacrifice, sacralization and messianism within the framework of the theme of the Great Patriotic War; 3) nostalgia for the lost mythologized "Soviet paradise" with brotherly "friendship of nations", mutual aid, compassion, loyalty, following principles and purity of relations; 4) romanticization of the criminal subculture of the 1990s as a desire for "liberation" from liberal freedom and heroization of special services as defenders of "own" from "others", "order" against "chaos".

Against the background of the collective trauma due to the loss of the great Soviet Motherland and the social amnesia of totalitarianism, a political myth is formed about the USSR as a "Golden age" with a nostalgic dream of its return, neo-Sovietization takes place, the implantation of the Soviet ideas into the worldview of Russian youth with a logical conclusion about the lost Motherland – the USSR and the desirability of its return. Contrarily, the panorama of the criminal subculture of the 1990s forms a protective myth-scarecrow about the danger of the search for freedom, which is equated with chaos and leads to the blurring and loss of moral and socio-political boundaries. This is a warning against the "destructive power" of liberal ideas and nostalgia for the strong hand and stability of the "Soviet paradise". The key value offered to the audience is belonging to the pack, to one's own, their protection at any cost, embodied in the well-known Russian slogan "Svoikh ne brosaem" [We do not abandon ours]. The main message of the narrative about the criminal 1990s – to prevent their repetition – for the post-memory generation becomes a substitute for the key message of the Soviet generation – "If only there was no war." Vice versa, the Great Patriotic War narrative offers the idea of war as purification and salvation through self-sacrifice. War and violence in the modern Russian Soviet narrative are represented as inevitable system-forming factors of Russian society, which set the framework for its internal transformations.