Artistic Features of Russian TV Serials About the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

The essay represents the first effort to explore the artistic methods
employed in the TV series about World War II (the Great Patriotic War) and
analyzes four multi-episode TV shows released in 2004. In its own way, each of
these series responded to the new public interest in the less known aspects of
the war. Simultaneously, each of them established a dialogue with the previous
cinematic and TV productions, comprising direct reminiscences to earlier
films, objectivizing the audience expectations formed by earlier productions, or
even arguing with them. This dialogic trend should be considered as part of the
postmodernist framework of contemporary television: reminiscences of popular
post-war films or literal or visual citations from these films become an integral
part of contemporary cinema and television and also act as documentary-like
reference points.
In all reviewed cases, the authors emphasize adventure narratives well suited
for TV presentation and rendered even more spectacular by modern visualization
technologies. The producers are confronted with a contradiction between the
chosen historical context and imaginary plotlines: it is quite difficult to put the
series’ characters within the imaginary space, depriving them of the well-known
facts, especially those propagated in earlier film and TV productions. Inevitably,
each plot is aggressively influenced by the tragedy of the “little man”, in which
the place of the enemy occupied in the Soviet tradition by the Gestapo and the
Abwehr is replaced by the repressive Soviet state security services. Even a decade
after its release, Shtrafbat (The Penal Battalion) plays a major role in the public
and professional discussion on the ethics of war-related films and television
series. Meanwhile, At a Nameless Height, a series which contains even more
reminiscences to Soviet film and television productions, should be regarded as
one of the earliest works in which the sense of authenticity was sacrificed to
the imaginary expectations of the viewers – expectations formed by the Soviet
historical and cultural framing.