Reversibility of the Socialist Realism Aesthetics (on the Example of the Modern Russian Cinematography)

Abstract

The article studies reversibility of socialist realism aesthetics—a trend in the modern Russian cinematography—from a socio-cultural perspective. An integrative cultural-philosophical approach serves as research optics. It combines the features of the traditional cultural method (focusing on the basic units of culture—material products and works of art—and behavior patterns formed on their basis) and aesthetic approach (an appeal to the reflective study of expressive forms of art products and their influence on mass consciousness, as a result of which mass culture is constructed). The potential of an integrative cultural-philosophical approach is revealed through a set of methods: historical and genetic analysis, modeling, and case studies. The empirical base are films representing historical events in the blockbuster format, which have been released by Russian production companies for wide distribution between 2015 and 2021 (The Balkan Line, The Age of Pioneers, Going Vertical, Donbass: Outskirts, AK-47, Crimea, Legend No. 17, The Last Frontier, Salyut 7, Panfilov’s 28 Men). The conclusion is that socialist realism aesthetics, through the cultivation of a pro-Russian narrative, is designed to emphasize in the mass consciousness the distinctness of the Russian state from the point of view of its unique status, which largely determines the situation of confrontment on the global stage, thereby denoting the instrumental nature of cinema products, endowing the institution of cinema the role of an idealistic propagandist of our times.