Greg Carleton's 2011 History Highlight

Because of my work - teaching and writing about Russia - I keep an eye on how history and, in particular, memories of war are shaped and produced in popular culture. No other subject is as consistently dominant and this year is notable for solidifying a continuing trend, especially in cinema, of scripting the Second World War in a new epic vein, consonant with a number of imperatives: preserving the triumphalism of the Soviet era but now with a specifically Russian inflection; acknowledging the tragic aspects of the war (even those self-inflicted such as in the appalling treatment of frontline soldiers by commanders and the Party); ensuring that the greatest and yet most traumatic chapter of Russian history remains for subsequent generations the bedrock of national pride and collective identity.

In 2011 the most conscious expression of this trend came from Russia’s most powerful name in cinema: writer-director-producer Nikita Mikhalkov and the culmination of his blockbuster trilogy, Burnt by the Sun (or Citadel), the first segment of which appeared in the United States in 1995 and captured the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Presented now as Russia’s nominee for the same award again, it is unlikely to win, as even domestic critics have found it failing as an artistic production. I would agree on that note, but aesthetic failure does not preclude cultural value. It constitutes the most recent and overt attempt to unite and thus resolve the war’s competing triumphant and tragic elements on a cosmic-mythic-religious plane. The result (seen elsewhere both in official and popular culture) is a new picture of Russia in the Second World War, one that preserves the halo of victory but takes those laurels away from the state and military command, preserving them for the people as a testament to the strength of their faith and scale of their suffering, no matter if inflicted by a foreign enemy or by their own leaders then.

Of course, none of the manufactured history in 2011 ranks with what the “real” domain has offered: Arab Spring, the Euro Crisis, and, as of now, the unexpected resistance to Vladimir Putin’s attempts to preserve his hold on power. The cultural production of history always lags behind the real thing. I can’t wait, therefore, to see what the next year brings.

Greg Carleton is Associate Professor of Russian Literature, Tufts University and Center Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He is the author of Sunday Lessons (History Today, December 2011).