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DOI: 10.15862/50SCSK425 (https://doi.org/10.15862/50SCSK425)

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Krynkin S.E. [The transformation of Russian cinema in the 1990s: transition from Soviet propaganda to free expression] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 4. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/50SCSK425.pdf (in Russian). DOI: 10.15862/50SCSK425

The transformation of Russian cinema in the 1990s: transition from Soviet propaganda to free expression

Krynkin Stanislav Evgenievich
State University of Education, Moscow, Russia
Sistema-K LLC, Moscow, Russia

Abstract. Cinema, being the most massive and technologically dependent art form, turns out to be especially sensitive to socio-political and economic shocks. The article examines the complex and contradictory process of transformation of Russian cinema in the 1990s, which took place against the backdrop of the deepest systemic crisis. The author analyzes the causes of the crisis of Soviet cinema and the fall in cinema attendance in the early 1980s. The main trends and factors of the transformation of the film industry of the 1990s are analyzed: the sociocultural context and the birth of a new aesthetics («chernukha» and auteur cinema), ideological and market upheaval (from propaganda to competition). It is emphasized that after a period of stagnation in the film industry and the collapse of film distribution, the cinema of the 1990s gained freedom, openly broadcasting the acute problems of society, experimenting with form and content. It is especially emphasized that understanding the scale of change in the 1990s requires an awareness of the depth of the crisis in which Soviet cinema found itself by the mid-1980s: it was not only creative, but primarily economic and organizational. The study shows that the transition was neither linear nor painless; it was the result of the collapse of the Soviet system, economic collapse, ideological reorientation and the search for a new artistic language. Summarizing, it can be argued that Russian cinema of the 1990s is a historical stage when films acted as a kind of mirror of public sentiment, reflected its fears and contradictions, hopes and moral dilemmas.

Keywords: film distribution; film industry; Soviet cinema; propaganda; national identity; crisis; market economy; creative freedom

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