Images of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Cinema of the Second Half of the 1940s and Their Reflection in Egodocuments

One of the means of visualization, mythologization, and translation of images of the Great Patriotic War is the Soviet art cinema, which in the post-war years performed ideological, propaganda, communicative, and integrative functions. Based on the analysis of the content of 32 Soviet feature films of the second half of the 1940s and 30 sources of personal origin (diaries of Soviet citizens), the article reveals the semantic content of images of the Great Patriotic War broadcast from the screen and the specifics of their perception by contemporaries. It is revealed that the scenario and visual concretization of the semantic core of images of the war occurred in three key segments: 1) the image of the “leader and commander” Joseph Stalin, the victorious 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 Soviet people, their heroism and sacrifice. The analyzed egodocuments mention 21 films on military themes. In total, 69 references to Soviet films released in 1946-1950 were found in these diary entries. In their diaries, citizens wrote about watching films more often (90% of the analyzed diary entries), which was due to the higher frequency of showing films in the country’s cities. The largest number of mentions of watching films is recorded in the diaries of young people (school children, students) aged 20 and younger (43.3% of all the analyzed diaries). References to films viewed varied in detail. In 19% of diary entries, there are only mentions of watching, in 16% there are brief descriptions of plots, in 65%, there are evaluations of films seen (the movie rating on a scale of “liking” -“disliking” (35%), or as cinematographic works (16%), or opinions and thoughts of citizens about the issues raised in films (14%)). Analysis of the reflected perception of these films in the diaries shows that they were positively perceived by the majority of viewers, especially by the youth - the most loyal group of the Soviet society. In the diary entries of older citizens (50 years old and older), as well as representatives of the Soviet creative intelligentsia (actors, composers, writers, etc.), negative evaluations of domestic cinematic works were recorded more often. Mythological constructs embedded in the semantic and visual context resonated with the existential experience of people who had gone through the war, determining the nature of their emotional reactions and rational evaluations.

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