Visualizing a Heroic Past – The Russo-Ottoman War in Russian Popular Culture
Visualizing a Heroic Past – The Russo-Ottoman War in Russian Popular Culture

Summary/Abstract: War has always been one of the most common subjects of visual representation but the medial channels have developed a lot since the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877 – 1878. The present article gives an overview over the Russian visualization of the war in form of popular prints and fine arts at the times of the war itself, to the emergence of film and the embedding of Soviet/Russian film in the genre of the historical epic, prominently visualizing the respective nation’s history. The Soviet influence on Eastern European cinema is high-lighted as well as the significance of the reemerging Russian cinema on the picking up of the war as a central motive is at the end of the 1990s. The production of full-length films, TV-serials and documentaries as well as the organization of prominent exhibitions about the Russo-Ottoman War clearly show that the war and its related narratives have become an important part of Russia’s popular culture again.

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