ABSTRACT
We are not always able to combine patriotic responsibility for Russia’s
destiny with what Stolypin once called ‘‘Civil Liberties.’’
(Putin, 2000)
The most typical heroines on today’s TV who struggle with an urban destiny, social objectification, or marital convention can perhaps be divided
into three groups: those of the past, those of the present, and those thrown
back and forth – either metaphorically (that is, by financial machinations)
or physically (by railway systems and airlines, for example). Destabilization
is one step closer to nothingness. The 2003 series Beloved (dir. Iurii Kuz’-
menko) outlined the first of these groups very politely, as an initially con-
fusing soon-to-be unruly desire from someone’s history:
The present day. On her sixtieth birthday Mariia Grigor’eva receives an
envelope from a stranger. Inside she finds a ring and an open letter
signed with the pseudonym ‘‘Your Sweet Little Hedgehog.’’ Mariia
recalls that she used the nickname for all her numerous lovers. She is
mentally transported to the past in order to understand who could have
sent her such a touching letter.
