ABSTRACT
The 1970s and the first half of the 1980s were labeled the period of stagnation by Gorbachev’s ideologues. To some extent, this tag was correct because it reflects the orientation of the Brezhnevian dominant elite toward stability as the major goal in politics. The regime avoided political and social innovations but was at the same time against a return to Stalinist repression. In this specific political climate, Soviet cinematographers were forced to abandon their cherished hopes of the sixties about the liberalization of society. In the 1960s and 1970s, most filmmakers were dissident in thought but conformist in behavior. Only Andrei Tarkovskii and Alexander Askol’dov publicly maintained their dissident positions. Negative presentations of bureaucrats are central to most Soviet movies. In neo-Stalinist-oriented movies, however, bureaucrats, especially those active in the repressive apparatus, are treated differently. Neo-Stalinist films such as Confrontation also portray bureaucrats as very well-educated and respectful of intellectuals.
