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This book explores how modern Russian cinema is part of the international information war that has unfolded across a variety of battlefields, including social media, online news, and television. It outlines how Russian cinema has been instrumentalized, both by the Kremlin's allies and its detractors, to convey salient political and cultural messages, often in subtle ways, thereby becoming a tool for both critiquing and serving domestic and foreign policy objectives, shaping national identity, and determining cultural memory. It explains how regulations, legislation, and funding mechanisms have rendered contemporary cinema both an essential weapon for the Kremlin and a means for more independent figures to publicly frame official government policy. In addition, the book employs formal cinematic analysis to highlight the dominant themes and narratives in modern Russian films of a variety of genres, situating them in Russia's broader rhetorical ecosystem and explaining how they serve the objectives of the Kremlin or its opponents.
List of contents
Note on Transliteration
Contributor Details
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Alexander Rojavin
Part I: Regulations, Funding, and Policies of the Russian Film Industry
Chapter 1. Russia's Film Industry between State and Commerce, between National and Global
Birgit Beumers
Chapter 2. In Defense of Historical Truth: The Second Front of Russia's Information War
Rebecca Johnston
Part II: Military Adventurism and Foreign Policy Fantasies
Chapter 3. The Holocaust and Russia's Cinematic Go-Betweens: Cultural Diplomatic Internationalism or Covert Information Warfare?
Stephen Hutchings
Chapter 4. Exploiting the Seventh Art: Legitimizing of Contemporary Russian Private Military Adventurism
Kiril Avramov
Chapter 5. Preparing for Total War: Ukraine in Recent Donbas and Russian Cinema
Gillian Littleton and Joshua First
Part III: Law and Dissent on the Screen
Chapter 6. The Battle for Narrative Dominance: Criminal Law in Contemporary Russian Cinema
Alexander Rojavin
Chapter 7. The Russian Orthodox Church and Religious Legislation Reflected in Contemporary Russian Film
Helen Haft
Chapter 8. Angry Young Men and Modest Provincials: Reimagining the Dissident Writer in Russian Cinema
Otto Boele
Index
About the author
Alexander Rojavin, formerly of the theater world, is an intelligence, policy, media, and film analyst specializing in information war history, strategy, and tactics. He is currently the Vice President of Counter Foreign Malign Influence Strategy at Deft9 Solutions, Inc.
Helen Haft is currently an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office (she is contributing to this volume in her personal capacity and the views expressed herin do not represent those of the DA's Office or the City of New York). Prior to joining the DA's office she was a legal fellow at Human Rights in China, after having spent many years studying Russia, with a focus on church-state relations, religiously inspired legislation, and freedom of speech.
Summary
This book explores how modern Russian cinema is part of the international information war that has unfolded across a variety of battlefields, including social media, online news, and television.
