The visual representation of the image of a collaborationist in a soviet cinematograph

In the study basing on the analysis of about 40 Russian films dedicated to the Great Patriotic war, shot in the period from 1945 to 1991, the description of the image of collaborators presented in them is given. The relevance of this research is due to the need to analyze the reflection of problematic, debatable aspects of military events in domestic cinema in the context of huge influence of cinema on the perception of the image of war in society, especially from younger generation. Another important fact is that the ideological control and the problem of maintaining the international unity of the state left their mark on the representation of this topic in Soviet cinema. Speaking about visual representation of the image of collaboration and collaborators in Soviet cinema, we made the following conclusions. Firstly, it underwent a certain historical development in various eras of the post-war Soviet cinema. Secondly, almost all existing forms of collaboration were reflected in Soviet cinema: from military service in the auxiliary formations of the auxiliary police and the “Vlasovites” to the civil administration from the mayors and mayors. A collaborator in Soviet films with rare exceptions is a negative character, endowed with qualities such as cowardice, cruelty, greed and the desire to curry favor. He is most often treated with hatred by civilians, soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. The main motivations for serving the Germans most often are class-conditioned hatred of the Soviet regime (in the cinema of the post-war period) or domestic adaptation, as well as nationalist motives (in late Soviet military-historical films).