Czy w ZSRR kręcono thrillery?

Abstract

This article is an attempt to answer the question whether, in the specific conditions in which the cinematography of the Soviet Union was created and developed, we can talk about the production of thrillers. The notion of the thriller is considered and attention is paid to the problem of the definition of the term itself and the fact that some researchers do not treat the thriller as a genre at all. The thriller, associated by the Soviet decision-makers with Western culture (and thus also American), was perceived as a bourgeois creation, which made it an undesirable genre in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, for many years immediately after the end of World War II and at the very end of the existence of the historical empire, a series of films were created and they could be called thrillers in the general modern sense of the word. Titles of Soviet films created in the years 1947–1991 have been chosen from the rich resources of cinematography of our eastern neighbours. At the cinema historian’s workshop, there were both images of well-known and popular Soviet directors (Boris Barnet, Stanisław Goworouchin, Eldar Riazanow), as well as slightly less known personalities, (Gieorgij Nikulin, Boris Durow).