This article is a fragment of a work devoted to the issues offigurative representation in Russian cinema. The article briefly analyzesthe evolution of the scientist's image, from the period of the “thaw” to thebeginning of “perestroika”. The author's theoretical approach is based on thedefinition of nihilism given by N.Berdyaev in his article “Russian Socialismand Nihilism”. According to the author of the article, one of the directionsof the policy of the Soviet government in relation to the intelligentsia was touse the features of nihilism, which are the essence of the Russian and Sovietintelligentsia. Of course, this policy is reflected in the cinema. The articledescribes two stages in the cinema of the Soviet period: the “thaw” and “70s –early 80s”. Characterizing the image of a scientist in the era of the “thaw”, theauthor notes that this is a scientist who has ideals, who does not compromise –everything in the name of the goal, he won’t tolerate meanness and dishonesty.The article traces the changes taking place in the representation of thisimage in national cinema over more than two decades. The author concludesthat the lack of people who can seriously care about the public good leads tothe fact that in the difficult historical period there were no champions capableof maintaining confidence in the reality of ideals in the state. Protectingsociety from moral decay, which was the main task of the intelligentsia, wasremoved from the agenda. The feeling of its own marginality, sectarianism,heresy, not only its habitual removal from the life of the state, but also itsanti-state stance as a principle of behavior, all of it led to the fact that in the90s., focused on themselves and their well-being as the material embodimentof what equaled the public good according to the understanding at the time,the intellectuals could not offer anything except another round of nihilismin relation to Soviet history and quickly left the historical scene and almostdisappeared from the screens as a meaningful image.