ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of TV serials as internally oriented cultural-political measures of nation branding in the Russian context. In Russia, state television is one of the preferred sites of “internally oriented” nation branding, employed by the governing elites in their endeavors to legitimize the existing order. The chapter focuses on one very popular TV serial, Sladkaya zhizn'/The Sweet Life, which was broadcast on de facto state-owned Russian channel TNT in 2014. The serial will be subjected to a filmic narrative analysis in order to reveal the nation-branding capacity it unfolds, within its contemporary sociocultural and political context, by its references to various social, cultural, and historical resources. The chapter presents an analysis of the serial and a discussion of how it functions as one element in the process of Russian nation branding. It provides a short theoretical background on Russian nation branding.
